


The Hobbit: Unexpected Mercy

by Gozzer



Category: Overwatch (Video Game), The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Magic, New Overwatch, Orcs, The Hobbit Movies - Freeform, Trolls, crack story, mercy as issues, past gency, slightly depressed!Mercy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2020-05-13 05:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19245130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gozzer/pseuds/Gozzer
Summary: Doctor Angela "Mercy" Zielger was just minding her own business, doing work per usual, when she gets dropped into a fictional world. Her journey starts in a Hobbit hole with thirteen dwarves, a wizard, and a Hobbit. Where it will end she doesn't know.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize if the German is incorrect. I was using a translator on the internet.

It was a surprisingly calm day for Mercy after all the trouble with training Hana and Lucio the days before. Gibraltar was peaceful with a clear sky and a soft breeze bringing the aroma of the sea through the watchpoint. All the windows were open in her office to let in the fresh air. She was working on her Valkyrie suit for the nanites that worked to change the colors of the material, for when some of the younger members wished to see her in something brighter, stopped working a couple of days ago. Hana had wanted to see her in bright pink so that during training she could easily be spotted. But the nanites refused to alter the suits color no matter how much programing Mercy was doing.

She had asked Torbjorn to look over it at first with her, but even he couldn’t find what was wrong. So now she was left to figure out the problem on her own, not that she minded or even needed too. Just that morning she decided to relax a bit for the day by not worrying over everything that still needed to be done around base. Soft music was playing from a tablet on her desk with a cup of coffee sitting next to it. It was still relatively early in the morning, well not really, about ten but she had been up late last night talking with Genji. So she still needed a pick me up. 

Taking a breather from working she picked up her cup and leaned back in her chair. Her blonde hair was up in its usual ponytail high on her head with her bangs sitting on her forehead. She pushed the bangs back and wiped a sweating hand on her jeans, she may have been indoors but it was kind of warm outside. Not really sure what to do about her nanites she closed her eyes and did her best to clear her thoughts. On one hand the suit might eventually repair itself, the nanites actually doing their job, on the other they could just be fried and useless. Sadly she wasn’t given the time to figure out.

Around her the quiet music cut off and was replaced by murmurs of different voices. The breeze that was bringing in the smell of the sea changed to that of tobacco smoke and something unidentifiable. Mercy’s blue eyes snapped open quickly as she sat up. She couldn’t determine where the noises were coming from or how her nose was picking up the different smells. At first she thought she was having a stroke but cast that thought aside just as quickly as it came. The startled doctor didn’t move from her seat but she did bring her knees up to her chest in an effort to stem her panic. She reached for the tablet resting on her desk to call for Genji, or anyone really, when it started to disappear into thin air. Her breathing started to become more erratic as everything around her started to fade and be replaced by something else. In her head she went through the steps to calm her panic, taking deep breaths and holding them before releasing them, while the rest of her tried not to move. 

When she reopened her eyes, not having realized she closed them, she was surprised by her new surroundings. The area was dark except for the candle lamps littering the room, the light casting shadows of the several people around. All of them except for two were sitting around the table in which she found herself sitting on. She couldn’t determine if they were hostile in her panicked state, but she could see they all were different from the last. Her blue eyes swept over the room to land on the tallest of the men around her. He had a long silver beard and hair, and was dressed in grey robes. Kind blue eyes were watching her. 

Mercy didn’t move a muscle but she did look down to the table in which she sat on. On the table with her was her Valkyrie suit, wings, halo, staff and all. It was spread apart like it was on her desk with the inner workings open to see. She could feel her heart starting to slow at something familiar was with her. But it didn’t stop the way she looked from every corner to person frantically.

“Be calm, Miss Angela Ziegler.” Her eyes snapped up to the old man in the grey robes. “We wish you no harm.”

“Where am I? How did I get here?” Her accent startled several of the men sitting around her. She shot out a hand to latch onto the blaster pistol connected to her suit. Everyone scooted back at the noise of it charging up, not trusting the odd noise or the way she held it protectively close to her chest. 

“You are in Endor, Middle-earth, more specifically in Bag End. And those that brought you here, I can not say. But please, calm down.” The old man spoke again, drawing her attention back to him. She clenched her jaw and slowly lowered the blaster but didn’t put it down. 

“Why am I here?” 

“I do not know that either. But if I had to guess it would be for your medicinal expertise,” the man said. Mercy looked down to the suit sitting before her then those around her. Her eyes stopped at the man with the head of an axe embedded in his forehead. Flickering her eyes back to the only man that had spoken and back to the one with the axe, she was starting to understand what he meant. These men obviously didn’t know a thing about medical practice. 

Before she could get carried away with how odd and unsafe the injury was, she took in how they were dressed. Every single one of them were in cotton, or some material of the sort, shirts, pants, and coats. Not to mention the odd piece of medieval type of armor with the chain mail and thick metal plates. She took in the fact that the weapons they had on their person were also old and quite outdated. The place in which she found herself was starting to look more like one of the stories Reinhardt used to tell the longer she looked. It actually didn’t surprise her so much anymore, the day had been much to peaceful for something not to happen. 

“Alright, I can agree with you there. But what am I to do exactly before I’m allowed to leave? This Middle-earth is not where I’m from.” She surprised herself by how calm she sounded about the situation. Then again she was surrounded by weird things everyday at work. 

“That I do not know.” The man paused for a second to look at the person sitting at the head of the table. Mercy followed his gaze to the dark haired man with silver streaks showing his age and scruffy beard. She looked back at the older man for him to finish what he was saying. “But I welcome you to the company of Thorin Oakenshield.” 

At the words everyone started speaking over each other. Mercy squinted her eyes against the loud voices, never much liking loud noise in enclosed spaces. Seeming to take notice of her discomfort the man at the head of the table shouted something in a different language. Everyone quieted down and retook their seats without complaint. Seeing how they reacted to the man, she could tell he was well respected by everyone. 

“I’m sorry, but what is this company for? And how long will I be here? I have responsibilities back home,” Mercy interrupted the silence. She needed to be back as soon as possible, so many things still needed to be done. 

“We are taking back our mountain from the dragon Smaug.” At the new voice Mercy turned to where it came from. Sitting to the right of her was a younger man with dark hair and a bit of scruff on his face. Looking next to him she saw a blonde man with a braided mustache, just from the way he slapped the other man she could tell they were close. 

“Dragon?” The only dragons she knew of were the spirit dragons that the Shimada family wielded. And she still had trouble wrapping her mind around that even with Soba bothering her every other day. “Like fire breathing? Or the spirit dragons?” One was several times more terrifying than the other.

“Fire breather, Miss. Ya know, razor sharp teeth and claws like meathooks?” A man with a floppy hat spoke up from her left side. 

“What is a spirit dragon?” Mercy turned on the table to see who had asked the question. Another younger looking man, possibly the youngest, dressed in knitted clothes was looking between her and an older man sitting next to him.

“Um, I’m not actually too sure myself. There are some that can control them where I’m from. They are generally nice creatures from what I know and those I've met,” she said. Everyone’s eyes were on her, curious and disbelieving of what she said. Before she got the chance to elaborate the old man spoke again.

“I think introductions are in order. Then we continue our planning.” Mercy nodded her head slowly and moved to get off the table. The man with the floppy hat helped her down even though she could just step off. In that moment of her standing on the ground she noticed just how short everyone, other than the man in grey, was. If they were standing they would just barely reach her chin, some not even reaching there. 

“Alright, well, we have the leader of this company Thorin Oakenshield, then Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur.” She followed each of the heads nodding to her with their respective names, lingering on the one with the star shaped hair for longer than the others. “Finally we have our Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.” The shortest man standing a little ways away nodded to her. “And myself am Gandalf the Grey.” 

Mercy blinked slowly at trying to remember everyone’s names for however long she was going to be with them. They were going to bring her a headache. “Right, nice to meet you. I’m Doctor Angela Ziegler. Or you can just call me Mercy.”

“Why would we call you something other than your name?” The one called Gloin, she thinks, asked. 

“It’s a nickname.” At their still confused faces, she sighed. “Something people call you because it’s easier than your actual name. Or it can be something that is personal to whoever you’re talking about. Most people I work with call me Mercy because I used to be a field medic.” 

Around her the men were nodding as if they understood, but she could see that many of the older ones were still confused. The three youngest and in between aged ones seemed to have a better understanding of the concept of nicknames. 

“Well, if it’s all the same to you, lass. I’d like to call you by yer name.” Gloin said with several of the others nodding along with him. Mercy dipped her head to them in acceptance, not seeing much of a point in arguing. Everyone in the new Overwatch called her Mercy while the returning members preferred to call her by her name. 

Mercy settled back against the wall behind the men to allow them the chance to finish their conversation. She did snatch up her things from the table and now had them cradled to her chest. It’s not that she didn’t trust the men, well she couldn’t definitively say she trusted them, she just didn’t want her technology in someone else's hands. Even back in Gibraltar she kept it locked up unless she or those she trusted were working with it. And sadly quite a few of these men looked a little sticky fingered. 

So she sat back and watched things unfold before her. Things seemed to be spiraling into chaos as Balin handed over a long sheet of paper to Bilbo, a contract of sorts. The men muttered among themselves as the Hobbit read over the terms and conditions, muttering them out loud as he did so. When it came to funeral arrangements Bofur wasn’t helping in his explanations. Mercy could only hold her tongue at the panic that was taking over the small man. It wasn’t her place to question the methods of others no matter how much she wished too, but even she had her limits. The second Bilbo hit the ground she was by his side.

She snipped at Bofur for his terrible explanations as she went about making sure the Hobbit was fine. Gandalf had Bofur and Kili move him into a sitting area for him to wake up. Mercy snipped at them as well for moving him after he had just fallen, but it seemed Bilbo was just fine. He woke a few minutes later looking a bit dazed but with nothing wrong. Gandalf had her leave them to talk, after she declared the Hobbit was alright. 

Once she stepped passed the threshold Thorin, or at least who she thinks is Thorin, pulled her to the side with Balin. She looked down at the two expectantly, she wasn’t particularly in the mood for small talk. All she wanted to do was put her suit back together and go to sleep and hope to wake up back in her office. But even though she wanted to finish the conversation quickly she couldn’t stop herself from asking what they were exactly.

“I’m sorry, I hate to be rude. But what race are you all? I’ve never been around so many people this short.” She watched the confused expressions cross their faces with her own puzzlement. 

“We’re dwarves, Miss Angela. It’s not rude at all, it’s just not often we get someone asking,” Balin answered, a smile on his face. Mercy nodded again with her own small smile, she was slightly reeling over the fact that they were dwarves.

“What is it that you can do for this company? Any fighting or hunting?” Thorin asked, getting straight to business. If she wasn’t used to harsh questioning, Mercy was sure she would have snapped back at the man. But after so many years working as a doctor she got used the hard tones. 

“I’m not much of a fighter or hunter. I’m a doctor.” She paused to try and find a word that might explain her job to them more than ‘doctor’. “A healer. Mending wounds or any injury one might receive.” 

Thorin looked unconvinced at her while Balin was nodding long, clearly agreeing. Mercy sighed and rubbed a hand down her face, she was too tired to deal with this. Instead getting into an argument with the dwarf she turned and went back to where Bilbo and Gandalf were. She heard Thorin protest behind her but Balin took over for her. Shaking her head, she stepped into the study just as Gandalf was leaving. He offered her a nod before disappearing further into the house. 

“I hate to interrupt, Mr. Baggins.” Her voice startled the sitting Hobbit, making him jump up and face her. “But is there anywhere I can sleep for the night?” She didn’t fancy sleeping on the ground with a bunch of unknown people around her. Not that she hadn’t done it before, but that was war.

“Yes, right.” He sat down his cup and scuttled passed her into the hall. Mercy gathered up her suit from where she placed it in the other chair before following him.

The room he left her in was simple and cozy. A single bed was on the far side of the room with a dresser on the other end. Surprisingly there wasn’t a door, not one in the actual house now that she thought about it. But she just thanked him and sat on the bed. She laid out her suit and started reconnecting the wires and closing all the open panels. No one disturbed her as she went about moving everything to the dresser once it was put together nor when she laid in the unfamiliar bed. But just as she was drifting off, hoping all of this had been a dream, she heard singing coming from down the hall. The somber tone pulled her into a light sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for incorrect medical terms and literally everything dealing with medicine or medical practice. I'm not a doctor and knows nothing about it.

The next morning was a rushed one. Fili and Kili were the ones to wake her up and bring to the dining room for breakfast. Which she didn’t exactly enjoy, being more of a vegetarian, but she kept her complaints to herself. Gandalf seemed to take notice of this and offered her a thing of biscuits in place of the sausage and eggs. After breakfast everyone went about packing up things outside while Mercy struggled between putting on her suit or not. For she didn’t have any other clothes and the suit self cleaned. It was decided for her when Gandalf handed her a brown satchel for her clothes. He said all it had were a pair of elvish daggers and an empty journal. 

Mercy cursed to whatever was listening as she stripped of her jeans and purple sweater, and shoved them into the bag. She slipped on the dark bodysuit first before placing the white armor over the top. Thankfully the wings were already snapped into placed from the night before so she didn’t have to worry about putting them on. She placed the connector pieces on her cheeks just above where the bodysuit stopped, then she clipped on the halo. It was always her favorite part of the suit, other than the staff. It connected to the bodysuit that covered the bottom half of her hair and really had no purpose other than looking nice. Finally she finished getting dressed by stepping into the armored boots that encased her legs up passed her knees. 

Just as she finished snapping the armor into place Bofur knocked on the side of the doorway. She spun on her heel to face the dwarf while clipping her blaster to one hip and her condensed staff to the other. Upon informing her that they were getting ready to leave both of them wandered out of the room. The satchel Gandalf gave her was strung across her chest in between the wings on her back and bounced on her hip with every step. It was mighty irritating to her but she didn’t say anything. 

Once they stepped out of the round front door Mercy had to pause in her walking. Before her were rolling green hills with round doors placed in them and fenced off areas. Never in all her thirty-four years of life had she anything this peaceful and bright. Of course there were beautiful places in her world but nothing as pure as the place she found herself in. Everything was war torn or had at least something pertaining to the war, there were the odd places that were left untouched but no one went near them. An odd sense of sadness washed over her, bringing a sheen to her eyes, at seeing a place so unbothered by the harshness of war. She swallowed to get rid of the lump in her throat and brought a hand up to wipe at her face, just in case she started crying. 

“Are ya doing alright there, lass?” Mercy turned her head away from Bofur, who had caught on to the fact that she wasn’t moving from the doorstep. She didn’t answer at first, not knowing if she could explain what was going on inside her mind. The others seemed to notice her predicament and were about to comment on it when Gandalf spoke for her.

“I do believe Miss Ziegler is caught up in her own thoughts. She is of a different world, things are not the same here.” His words did little to dampen the dwarves curiosity. If anything it seemed to make it worse. 

Mercy closed her eyes against the calm setting before her, trying to fight off the sadness plaguing her. It took her several moments to compose herself enough to face the dwarves. All of them were packing up their ponies and chatting amongst themselves. Bofur was still by her side and watching her with concern. She offered up a small smile and stepped off Bilbo’s doorstep, and down out of his yard to the road. Not a word was spoken to her until the dwarves started mounting their ponies. 

“Thorin!” A call from Kili had everyone looking back towards him, and the two ponies he was looking after. “We don’t have a pony for Mercy to ride. The two pack ones we have wouldn’t be able to carry her.” The young dwarf turned and offered the doctor an apologetic grin. “Not that I’m calling you heavy or anything.”

“If it’s all the same to you. I’d rather not ride.” Mercy lifted the satchel off of her and held it in her hands. “I don’t know how, and it would be easy for me to just fly alongside you. If one you could carry this for me?” She offered up the satchel with a soft smile. No one moved for a second, processing what had been said. 

“Die? How would that help?” Oin asked, looking from her to everyone else. 

“She said fly. As in like a bird?” The last part of the sentence was offered in her direction by Dori. She nodded in acknowledgment, showing his question was correct. The others started arguing that wasn’t possible before they were silenced by Gandalf.

“Give Bofur the satchel. He should be able to watch over it for you,” Gandalf said. Mercy gave him a thankful smile before handing off the brown bag to Bofur. Who was sitting up on his pony with an open hand for her. 

Before anyone could speak again she hopped up into the air. Her wings spread out at the command and the yellow hard light feathers sprung up. Several gasps echoed around her as she floated off the ground. Without much thought she spun in the air to show off the technology like she would do for Torbjorn kids at Christmas. Gandalf nodded to her, somehow already knowing all about her suit, before urging his horse forward. The dwarves stared at her in awe as she followed right next to the wizard without touching the ground. Not a word was spoken from them for quite a bit of time. But that didn’t last long for Nori started a bet with Gloin on if Bilbo would show.

Mercy was content to fly alongside the ponies and the dwarves as they left the small town called Hobbiton. She was fascinated by the land around her and soon she couldn’t stop herself from rising higher to get a better vantage point. Her blue eyes took in the beautiful and calm land, not once finding something she didn’t like. While she would always love being in a city and around civilization, that’s just the time she lived in, she couldn’t say she wouldn’t enjoy living in the Shire. Gandalf was kind enough to inform her of where they were. 

For the next couple of hours she flew above the company, enjoying the freedom she was given. Just as she was about to float closer to the ground the sound of someone running after them stopped her. She spun in the air to find who it was and smiled at the small figure of Bilbo calling out to them. While she had her doubts about the Hobbit joining them she couldn’t deny the spirit within him. She waited for Thorin’s order to get him a pony, she was a fair bit heavier than a Hobbit, before swooping down. Lifting up the Hobbit by his coat, she dropped him gently on one of the pack ponies. His head shot up to her with wide eyes, not quite believing she was flying above him.

“Nice of you to join us, Bilbo,” she said. Her hand rested on his shoulder for a moment before she moved away. 

She flew in front of the Hobbit to settle next to Bofur and Nori. Her wings kept her stable right in between the pair, if only just slightly above them, which made for easy conversation. Both of them were still discussing matters pertaining to Bilbo’s arrival, not yet noticing her. 

“I believe it is a bit inappropriate to be talking about young Bilbo when he is just behind you,” she interrupted. The dwarves jumped and whipped to look up at her. She only offered a grin down to them before Gandalf entered the conversation.

“Miss Ziegler, Bilbo is older than you are,” he said. Mercy pulled to a stop and spun to face the wizard and Hobbit. 

“Well, then, my apologies Bilbo. I’m not used to be the youngest in a group. I normally have to act like the bigger person when it comes to most of those I work with.” She thought back to her first days of Overwatch with Jack, Gabe, and Ana. They were always bickering and when Ana had left them with her she had to take her place in bossing them around. It was even that way with Torbjorn and Rienhardt sometimes, and especially with Genji and McCree. 

“Aye, you act older than a few of the dwarves here,” Bofur agreed. He threw a cheeky grin to where Fili and Kili were riding behind them. 

Mercy offered him a smile for his efforts to draw her from her memories. They tended to consume her thoughts a lot more recently with the start of the new Overwatch. She wouldn’t ever be able to say she didn’t miss Jack, Gabriel, and Ana. They made up such a big part of the old Overwatch. At least many of the others were returning to Gibraltar, at first she wasn’t even sure if she was going to rejoin. It took Genji coming to visit her to drag her back into the fold, Winston was delighted to know she was coming back. 

“How are old ya then?”

Shaking away her thoughts, Mercy turned back to face the two dwarves in front of her. “You generally don’t ask a woman her age. But I’m thirty four if you must know.” Those that heard her words turned to look at her skeptically.

“Impossible, you can’t be more than a youngling for the race of men.” Mercy narrowed her eyes at the terminology used by the dwarf, Dwalin maybe. 

“I’m an adult and have been for almost twenty years. My suit slows down my aging.” She wasn’t particularly offended it was just the first time anyone had referred to her to a child in years.

“We didn’t mean to insult, lass,” Bofur said. Instead of continuing the conversation she offered a nod and glided away from them. It was a few minutes later she came close enough to watch over the company again.

Bofur tossed something back to Bilbo that she didn’t care to ask about, it looked rather dirty and gross, when she got close. It made her thankful for the cleaning nanites she had. She settled back into her flying without another word to anyone. She stayed close to the company now that they were leaving the comfort of the Shire and traveling to more dangerous parts of the world. But even with the dangers she couldn’t help admiring the land. Lush green grass and towering trees, the empty fields and rock outcroppings, even the small creeks they passed over amazed her. All of it did wonders to calm her thoughts and building nerves.

When they decided to stop for the night it was in the middle of a forest. Trees towered over them from the small clearing they had found, sounds of animals scurrying in the bushes surrounded them. Mercy had never been camping in her life and even just being there made her not want to start. While she liked nature sleeping out in it didn’t appeal to her. Around her the others didn’t seem to have a problem with it like she did. She tried her best to brush off the disgust of sleeping on the ground and help with what she could. Surprisingly Bombur allowed her to help make dinner for the company. Not that she wanted any of it, but to keep up her strength she took a bowl from the round dwarf. But after a few bites she couldn’t make herself finish it and handed it off to someone else. 

As the night drug on Mercy got increasingly more uncomfortable with the circumstances. She fidgeted with her hands and bounced her leg off the ground from where she sat next to Gandalf. All round her she could see the dwarves smoking out of pipes and blowing smoke rings. Sensing her discomfort, Gandalf offered his pipe to her.

“It will calm your nerves,” he said. Mercy shot him and the pipe a glare.

“Smoking will kill you, and if it doesn't, then the side effects of it will. Typically lung cancer, but there are others. Like COPD, heart disease, and a greater chance of strokes. It’s terrible for your body,” she lectured. All the dwarves that had heard her shrugged off the doctor’s words, even Gandalf just offered a grin to her. 

“It is not tobacco that I’m smoking, Miss Ziegler.” Mercy looked up at him but still shook her head at the offer. Doesn’t matter what they were smoking she wasn’t going to be taking part in it. 

Instead she started taking off her armor and boots, placing them off to the side. Then she reached back to press on the patches holding her wings to the suit. They dropped to the ground with soft clinks where she moved them to her growing pile. Once she unclipped her staff, blaster, and halo, she was left in her undersuit. It technically was two pieces, one black long sleeve top that connected the dark orange leggings she wore. Both had their own nanites within to offer more protection than normal clothes. But with her armor was off that was all she was left in, not even wearing a pair of socks.

She didn’t find anything wrong with the outfit, though it was a bit skin tight, for it was something common in her world, but it seemed Dori didn’t agree with her. The second she started taking off the protective white armor he slapped a hand over Ori’s eyes and tried to do the same for Nori. But the dwarf just moved away from his hand and followed his line of sight. 

“Miss Angela!” Hearing Dori’s cry, she looked up from messing with her boots. Her blue eyes searched for a second before landing on the grey haired dwarf covering his youngest brother’s eyes. “Put your clothes back on!”

“I’m still wearing my clothes, Mister Dori. I only took off my armor.” She lifted a blonde eyebrow at him then at Gandalf next to her. The old man was chuckling to himself his eyes glittering with mirth in the light of the fire. Turning back to Dori after finding no help from the wizard, she crossed her arms over her chest. “This is a typical outfit women wear in my world, at least my skin is still covered.” She muttered the last part to herself, Gandalf laughed into his pipe again. 

“Please put something on over yourself then.” Before Dori could continue on with whatever he was going on about, Mercy stood up. She stalked over to where her satchel was sitting next to Nori and crouched down in front of it. Without a word she pulled out her sweater from the day before and pulled it on.

“I do understand where you are coming from, Dori.” She didn’t stand just yet as she turned to the older dwarf. Her eyes were gentle but they were also hard against whatever was going to be said. “But what I’m wearing of no concern to you or any other man here. If by some accident and I’m without clothes, then you can say something. Until then keep your opinions about my body to yourself.” Rising to her feet she gently removed Dori’s hand from Ori’s eyes. “I will keep my sweater on when I’m not wearing my armor if only to lessen your discomfort. I wish you good night.” 

The camp was silent as she stepped away from the dwarves and went back to Gandalf. She sat back down on the bed roll she was given with a sigh. She wasn’t angry with the dwarf, she really did understand where he was coming from, but she wasn’t exactly happy either. There are some things she could handle being told to do, but things pertaining to her body were off limits for someone else to question and order about. Not wishing to be brought into another conversation, she laid down and pulled the thin blanket over her shoulders. She shoved down her own discomfort about sleeping outside to get some rest.

Floating over the company brought her some peace. They were traveling over a small cliff life area, so she didn’t need to worry about hurting herself by falling. It was a stunning sight to behold from her position. She was closer to the clouds than she was to the dwarves below her. They looked small under her but compared to the vast land in front of her everything did. The land was breathtaking and nothing could beat the view she had of it.

A warm breeze was blowing around her, pushing her bangs out of her eyes and dragging her ponytail behind her. The smells that came with it were nothing she’d smelled before, all of it was so clean and fresh compared to the city. She couldn’t keep the grin off her face as she danced through the air above the company. Back in her world she hardly had time to just go out and fly. Didn’t have time to feel the wind in her hair or on her skin, couldn’t see the amazing views off the coast of the watchpoint. She was too busy training the others or just plain working. The freedom she got from this world was exhilarating. She trailed behind the company just a bit to watch a herd deer grazing in an open field. Animals would always be her weakness. 

Once she dropped far enough behind she left the animals to graze in peace before flying after the group. They were several meters away from her, almost close to a mile, but she had no problem catching up to them. As she neared them she picked up the conversation coming from the back of the group. Hanging back just a tad to watch the company, she watched Bofur, Nori, and Kili talk amongst themselves. But she didn’t join in the conversation until Nori held up something in his hands. The condensed version of her staff was sitting in his palm for the others to see. Mercy reached a hand around to feel her left hip where it was clipped that morning, to her surprise, or, well, not really after seeing it with Nori, it was missing. Frowning slightly, she swooped in above the group and picked up the staff from the dwarf’s sticky paws.

“I’d rather you didn’t steal my things, Nori.” Her arrival shocked the dwarves into silence for a moment, and left them staring up at her with wide eyes. That was until Nori smirked up at her.

“Aye, we were just wondering what it was. It was rather easy to get from you,” he said. Mercy narrowed her eyes at the dwarf and was about to reclip the staff when Bofur spoke up.

“We really are curious about it, Mercy. Haven’t seen anything like it before.” Blue eyes moved over to him then Kili for confirmation. Once receiving it she settled on the back of Nori’s pony to give them a demonstration. She couldn’t help herself when the opportunity presented itself to show off her technology. 

A protest came from the dwarf in front of her on the pony, wanting to watch as well. She rolled her eyes slightly, drawing a laugh from the two behind her, before she floated up into the air again. Motioning for Nori to scoot back on the pony, she settled down in front of him, facing him with her back to the rest of the company. Luckily she was taller than the dwarf and could see over him without an issue, and she was rather slim as well to be able to fit on the pony without touching him. Not bothering with the dwarf’s approval she put the staff in front of her and pressed the button on the bottom of it. The handle extended well passed their bodies and away from anyone as to not hit something. The staff itself was around six foot in length which made it about the right length to not hinder the performance. As if activated by the button the flowering top popped open and allowed them to see the yellow glow at the end. Holding the top of the staff in the usual handle area she was careful to avoid pressing the triggers under her fingers. 

“It’s called the Caduceus Staff, from some mythological god in my world. Sadly whoever first made the symbol for hospitals got the Caduceus Staff mixed up with the Rod of Asclepius. But carrying on tradition of a winged staff I took on the common name.” She could see that the dwarves didn’t understand the mythology of her world and moved passed it. She didn’t understand sometimes either to be honest. “Anyway, I use it to heal major wounds when I’m out in the field. Most times during the Omnic Crisis we field medics didn’t have the time to fix every wound. I made my biotic nanite technology with the help of a friend to make healing soldiers easier. The Omnics were ruthless in the wars and we needed a way to work faster out in the field. Not to mention in the hospitals once we got back to them.” Pausing in her explanation to shake away the bloody memories, she didn’t look up from the staff. It wasn’t the original she created but it had seen its fair share of death.

“Right.” She shook her head and looked back to the dwarves. A mixture of emotions were on their faces, but the most prominent was pity. “The nanites within my body power the staff. When I point it at someone that needs healing they go out to the wound and speed up the healing process. The other use I have for the nanites is to give a boost to whoever needs to get out of a situation. They energize your body enough to escape the danger, if only for a moment.” Her fingers tapped on the triggers but didn’t press down on them. She had no need to tire herself out at the moment, none of them were injured. 

“After the first Omnic Crisis I didn’t have much need for the technology in my body. Overwatch needed my medical expertise not my nanites, so I hung up the suit for several years. But after Overwatch was disbanded another Omnic Crisis started in Russia and spread through the rest of the world. I joined those that I could out in the field to help the soldiers, if only for my technology to become useful to me again. But after so many years of not using them, they tire me out more than they used. Guess I should start working to make more of the nanites to fix that. Then again now that I’m working on training those in the New Overwatch, I guess there isn’t much point.” Mercy stopped speaking to the dwarves and was rambling to herself at that point.

“I mean the nanites in the suit have mostly stopped working. Maybe it’s time to hang up the Valkyrie for good, let Lucio be the field medic. Focus more on improving the medical world, and finding a way to stop the wars for good. I mean Numbani and few other countries are at peace with Omnics, it can be done. Ugh, but not with Talon running around unchecked. They want to see the world in ruin, Akande and his, the world needs conflict to evolve bullshit. Which it is correct to some degree, but not to the scale in which it’s happening. I’ve always hated war, such a nasty business. Some days it’s a wonder why I even bother. But that’s the way of the world, I guess. Wonder what Torbjorn did with the Bastion unit he found, he was talking about destroying it. Though I doubt that’s going to happen.” Mercy twirled the staff in her hands in thought, no longer paying attention to the dwarves watching her. 

They didn’t understand even half of what she was talking about but they could tell something needed to be done. Bofur nudged Nori with his foot to get him to do something about the rambling woman sitting with him. The red haired dwarf tossed a glare back at him but resigned to his fate with a sigh. 

“Mercy? Hey, lass.” Mercy looked up from her staff to the fingers snapping in her face. She leaned backwards to get away from the fingers but forgot where she was sitting. In her leaning she started slipping off the pony and would have fallen off if not for the strong arm wrapped around her waist. Startled blue eyes turned down to the arm holding her then the dwarf it was connected. Clearing her throat slightly when he didn’t immediately let go, she pushed herself off the pony. 

Condensing the staff and hooking it back on her hip, she took off up into the air not noticing that her blaster was now missing. She wished to distance herself as much as possible from the dwarves below her. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess and her rambling wasn’t something she wished to repeat. Only Genji had seen her like that on the late nights when they were up together on base. It settled heavy in her stomach that complete strangers had seen her at a low point. There were times when she just couldn’t keep in her piling thoughts, they would eat at her if she didn’t speak her mind. 

She shook herself to clear the thoughts as to not lose sight of the company that was slowly moving on without her. But she stayed well behind them for the rest of the day. She had no desire to speak with anyone and wanted to be left alone. Every once and a while she would catch a worried glance cast back at her, but still she floated well behind them. When they settled for the night on a cliff face she refused to come down from the tree she placed herself in. What she needed was space and a good cup of coffee with whiskey in it, McCree had showed her the wonders it would do for ones mood. But out in the middle of nowhere in a different world she had no source of comfort that she needed. She refused to cry, for there was no need for it, and kept wiping at her face with her gloved hands. 

When the sun had well passed set she was still sitting up in her tree. The only others left awake were Fili, Kili, Bilbo, and Gandalf, all of them sitting around the small fire. Mercy struggled to decide between staying up in the tree or joining them down on the ground. Going down won out once loud screeches broke the still air. She hopped off the high branches and floated down to rest in front of the fire. Her eyes looked around to figure out where the terrible sounds were coming from. It seemed Bilbo had the same idea and asked what it was. Fili and Kili took it upon themselves the frighten the poor Hobbit, and Mercy to some degree, by telling them about night raids by orcs. Not liking the creatures of this world, Mercy hunched in on herself and decided to keep her armor on for the night. Her fright from the orcs wasn’t lessened in the slightest when Balin started telling a story about some old fight in Moria. If anything it made her wish to leave this world and go back to where her only problem was rogue omnics and terrorists. 

When the next day rolled around Mercy was still awake sitting curled up by the dying fire. The dwarves didn’t bother her for the morning other than trying to get her to eat something, to which she refused because the thought of eating meat made her sick in the moment. She still hadn’t moved from her spot when it came to set off for the day. Many of the company were starting to get worried for the doctor. Eventually Gandalf was the one to get her to move, if putting her to sleep was getting her to move. He picked her up and offered for one of the dwarves to ride with her. To everyone’s surprise Nori took the blonde doctor and placed her in front of him on his pony like they had been the day before. Except her head was now leaning on his shoulder, halo slightly pressing into his shoulder, and his arms were caging her in.

Mercy woke up shivering and wet pressed up against something solid and warm. Her arms moved to wrap around herself only to find someone else’s already there. Pushing herself away she blinked open her eyes to see who was holding her. Through her soaking wet hair plastered over eyes and the water dripping down her face she saw Nori looking up at her. He had a hood pulled up over his head to shelter his face from the rain, and now that she was more awake she felt something wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion at the situation she found herself waking up in. On one hand she knew Gandalf had put her to sleep, it was inevitable. On the other she wasn’t sure why she was waking up riding with Nori in the rain. Blue eyes looked away from the dwarf to take in the dark grey sky above with a squint present. Looking back down to the dwarves around her she noticed that none of them knew she was awake.

“Um, good morning?” She asked quietly, not knowing if it was still morning or not. She pushed her wet bangs back with a hand and reached to pull up her hood with the other. It just barely cleared the halo resting above her head.

“Afternoon, actually,” Nori corrected. He was still watching the road ahead of him not much caring for the woman sitting with him. Mercy nodded her head and shifted her shoulders to feel if her wings were still present. Feeling the empty weight she looked over her shoulder to make sure that they were gone. “They’re in your satchel. I couldn’t see around ‘em.” 

“Ah,” she hummed. Still waking up she felt her hips for her staff and blaster, only to find the blaster missing. Narrowing her eyes she looked directly at who was responsible. “Where is it?” 

“Where’s what?” Nori asked innocently, still not looking at her. 

“My blaster, I know you took it.” She started to look over his shoulder at the packs strapped to the pony. Reaching an arm around him she flipped open all of them but was disappointed to not find her white blaster. Still not receiving an answer from Nori she crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at him. Seemingly taking pity on her, Nori let go of her waist to reach for something under his cloak and pulled out the white blaster. Doing her best to not snap at him she took the weapon back and clipped it to her hip. Glaring down at the dwarf she wrapped her arms around herself tighter to fight off the chill settling in, the heating in her suit deciding to not work.

“What can you do about this deluge, Mister Gandalf?” Mercy turned away from her glaring to look at Dori riding just ahead of them. He looked just as pitiful as the rest of them in the pouring rain. 

“It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change to weather you will have to find yourself another wizard,” Gandalf answered. 

Not caring much for the new conversation, Mercy turned back to her riding partner. The dwarf seemed just as uninterested in the talk as she was if the rolling of his eyes was anything to go by. Catching her staring he lifted an eyebrow at her with a smirk growing on his lips. Mercy ignored the dwarf and hugged herself tighter as a shiver racked her body. It had been a good while since she’d been out in a rain storm, and one without an umbrella or coat. She’d be lucky if no one caught a cold from being out the weather, for she didn’t know anything about this world’s medicine or how to use it. Then again most colds just clear up naturally on their own. 

The feeling of an arm wrapping around her startled her from her thoughts. Blue eyes snapped open to stare at the dwarf in front of her. A cheeky grin was on his lips but he was still watching the road ahead of him. Mercy rolled her eyes but didn’t move the arm off her waist for it offered a good bit of warmth. She closed her eyes once more to avoid the rain dripping into them and tilted her head down. The halo she wore smacked Nori in the face the second her head got to low and startled him backwards. Not even opening her eyes she lifted a hand to unclip the piece and dropped it into their laps. She was much too tired to deal with it at the moment.

Soon enough she was sleeping once again and slumped against Nori’s chest. The metal halo sitting in his lap was digging uncomfortably into his stomach, eventually he couldn’t deal with it and pulled it out. Letting go of the reins, he trusted in his ability to stay balanced, he held the object in front of his eyes. The half circle was golden and even in the rain it shone brightly making him want to pocket it. Instead he studied the near invisible clips on the bottom that held it in place on Mercy’s head. Her whole outfit confused him, from the top of the halo down to the bottom of her metal boots. It didn’t look at all like it would protect her but just from having part of the hard material pressed against him he could tell it was sturdy. Sadly he knew he wasn’t going to get any answer while she slept, so he placed the halo into one of his packs and carried on with the company. 

The next time Mercy woke up the sun was shining and her underclothes were mostly dry. She was still riding with Nori for she couldn’t get to her wings in the satchel on the back of his pony. It’s not that she minded, well she might’ve just a bit, it was just that riding a pony was very uncomfortable. Not much in the way of words were exchanged between the pair, she still wasn’t feeling like she should be talking after yesterday’s incident. So when they stopped for the night next to a burnt down house she tried to go her separate way from the dwarves. But Bombur wanted some different company while cooking and Bifur seemed to be developing a cold. 

Instead of disappearing into the trees like she wanted too, except for the fact that the trees were several yards away, she stayed by the fire. While she didn’t help cook, she snagged a carrot off the round dwarf without him looking, she did kneel down in front of the grey and black bearded dwarf. Before she even got close Bifur started saying things in a harsh language with hand signals to go along. It startled her enough to land her on her butt on the cold ground. The others turned in their direction at the dwarf’s words. No one moved for a moment as they waited for Bifur to finish his odd speech. 

“What were ya planning on doing there, lass?” Bofur asked from right next to her. She climbed to her knees once more but didn’t move to get up further. 

“I was going to check on him. I’m still a doctor,” she said. Her hands flew up to brush off some dirt clinging to the orange fabric hanging over her legs. It got mighty annoying on some occasions but she refused to remove it from the suit. 

“There ain’t nothin’ you can do about the axe in his head. Sorry to disappoint ya.” Bofur laughed quietly and offered her a hand. She pushed it away and got back in her kneeling position in front of Bifur.

“That’s not what I was checking. That wound is too long gone for even my nanites to fix.” She paused to look at the axe head for a second. “Apologies, Bifur.” Upon receiving a nod of acknowledgement she continued talking. “I was seeing if he was starting to develop a cold. Staying out in the rain will do that. The rest of you seem to be doing just fine, but his breathing is worse than yours.”

The dwarves didn’t say anything for several moments. She watched them share a few looks and words in the harsh language before turning to her. Bifur started speaking to her and nodding at Bofur when he answered. “He’ll allow ya to take a look, even if we don’t know what yer talking.” Bofur finally said to her. 

Mercy nodded her head and moved her hands out to Bifur. She stopped just shy of his chest and waited for permission to continue. Once she received the permission she placed one hand on the front of his chest and one on the back. It was a bit unconventional without a stethoscope but it would have to work. She held her hands somewhat tightly to his chest as he breathed, feeling for the abnormal movement she had heard earlier. A slight shuddering of his breath told her exactly what she wanted to know. Removing her hands, she brought the back of her hand up to his cheeks and forehead. From the warmth on his cheeks she couldn’t tell if he was actually gaining a fever but the coolness of his forehead indicated otherwise. Nodding to herself she pulled her hands away and got to her feet. Both dwarves watched as she sat on Bifur’s otherside.

“He’s a bit congested, but thankfully he’s not running a fever. It should clear up in a few days,” she said. Both men nodded along with her words but she couldn’t they didn’t really understand her terms. “I can fix it now though, if you wish?” 

Bifur started speaking and waving his hands in front of himself. His cousin answered in kind and turned to the confused Mercy. “He said you can fix it. Do we finally get ta see yer staff in action?” Bofur asked, a grin on his face. 

“Yes you will, Bofur.” She smiled lightly and pulled her staff off her hip. The dwarf sitting next to her jumped as the staff extend passed them. Mercy knew such a small act of her nanites wouldn’t tire her out, so she was more than willing to help the older dwarf. 

Both watched with awe as the top started to glow a soft yellow. Mercy laughed softly at the way jumped when two yellow tendrils connected to Bifur. They spun lazily in the air for a second before she let off the trigger on her staff. Nobody said anything as she condensed her staff and reclipped it. She looked from them to the rest of the dwarves watching her warily. A nervous smile made its way onto her face as she waited for a response. She didn’t have to wait long before Bifur was waving his hand again and speaking. The other dwarves relaxed around her at the apparently comforting words of the dwarf. 

“Aye, that’s quite the staff ya got there, lass. To get Bifur praising you,” Balin said politely. Mercy released her tense muscles and let go of the breath she was holding. Working with these dwarves was going to be the death of her. 

“Well, danke!” She rolled her eyes at the confused looks on their faces. Of course they wouldn’t know any German.


	3. Chapter 3

Later in the night, once dinner was finished and Bilbo had disappeared to give Fili and Kili their food, Mercy sat with a panel on her armor open. She was trying to see if she could get the colors to change to something darker to match the environment she found herself in. With a small screwdriver she borrowed from Gloin she poked at a few of the small, practically nonexistent, wires. They sparked underneath the metal tip but thankfully the nanites within started to glow once more. Breathing a sigh of relief she moved to program them for a dark brown. But she was startled from her work by loud crashing from the forest and towards the camp. Her fingers slipped on the panel and the nanites within the material of her entire suit started darkening to a deep black. The only part still containing any color were small emblems on her suit, part of her wings, and her halo.

 

Spinning around angrily to find what startled her she stopped at the sight of a panicked Fili. She climbed to her feet and rushed over to him, wanting to make sure he was alright. When she reached him the others were already picking up their weapons and following him into the trees. Mercy looked around quickly before deciding to join them in whatever fight they were going on. Her now black blaster was in her hands as she travelled behind Nori quietly. The dwarves didn’t take notice of her until they were all hiding in the bushes at the edge of a clearing.

 

Mercy had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from shouting. Standing around a giant fire were three enormous creatures. Each with grey skin and unproportional limbs, not to mention huge noses and off set eyes. A squeak left her mouth involuntarily at the sight of the hideous creatures. All of the dwarves turned to look at her, each with their own surprise, but they didn’t get a chance to say anything. In the middle of the clearing Bilbo was being held up by creatures. With a cry they couldn’t stop Kili from rushing out to stab at the creatures.

 

Before he got too carried away the others sprung up after him. Mercy did her best to control the shaking of her hands as she dashed out with them. Her blaster was up and firing off shots towards the creatures faces. The laser shots and sounds caused a pause from the dwarves but they didn’t stop long to think on it. Doing her best to stay out of the way she glided from person to person and out from under large feet. Sadly their short battle was over when two of the creatures got a hold of Bilbo once more. Along with the dwarves she dropped her weapons in a pile, well her staff and blaster anyway. Before the creatures could grab a hold of her one of them started talking.

 

“What is it wearing?” A nasaly voice asked, a large finger reaching out to touch her wings. Mercy took a step backwards but was caught by another large hand. She struggled in the tight grasp around her waist but it was to no avail. The wings on her back they were asking about were pressed together, her left one was starting to make a cracking noise.

 

“Don’ no. But can we eat it?” The one holding her asked. A disgusted look appeared on the doctor’s face. 

 

“No, it’s carbon fiber.” The disgust in her voice was clear to everyone that heard her. The creatures around her nearly dropped her when she started speaking. “And you’ll break them if you keep handling me like this.” While the wings were made to take a lot of damage being crushed was something they weren’t built for. And the tightening grip on her was going to shatter the connector panels on her shoulders for it had already started. 

 

“What do we do with it then?” The cook of the group asked, pointing a ladle at her face. She scrunched up her face at the smell coming from it and the creatures. 

 

“Allow me to take them off,” she said. The three creatures shared a look before placing her on the ground none too gently. Muffling a curse she glared up at them for the harsh treatment. But she still pressed on the wing panels and allowed them to fall from her armor to the ground. She pushed them into the pile of dwarvish clothing to keep them safe before she was snatched up again. They placed her in a scratchy sack and tossed her into the pile of dwarves already in sacks. 

 

All Mercy could do was watch as several dwarves were turned on a spit over the fire. She felt powerless tied up in a sack. Her arms were pressed against her chest and her legs were curled up in the small area. The creatures were talking amongst themselves about the best way to cook and eat them. Mercy didn’t know what to do but apparently Bilbo did as he stood up and started sharing cooking tips. While she didn’t exactly know what he was doing she could tell he was stalling for something. So she kept her mouth shut and let the little Hobbit talk. 

 

Things got worse when one of the creatures picked up Bombur to eat him. She closed her eyes and waited for something to happen when shouts about parasites started springing up. It startled her enough to snap open her eyes to look at the dwarves around her. They were yelling about who had the largest parasites, which made her shiver because any type of parasite was nasty. But their stalling could only last so long when the cook caught on to what they were doing. Though at that point it was too late as Gandalf decided to finally join the party. Mercy lifted an eyebrow at the wizard in question when he slammed his staff into the boulder he was standing on. It split apart and sunlight came through, turning the creatures to stone much to her surprise. 

 

“What are those things?” She asked while Gandalf helped her out of the sack. 

 

“Trolls, Miss Ziegler.” The wizard said before turning around to where the other dwarves were. “Though none have been down the mountains since before something darker ruled this land.” 

 

Mercy watched him talk to himself as he moved over to where Thorin was standing. Not much caring for whatever they were talking about she went to find her wings and weapons. The wings were exactly where she had pushed them underneath a shirt. Bending down she picked up the appendages and studied them. Her gloved fingers ran over the smooth material, looking for anything that might’ve been wrong. Sadly she found a large crack running along the entire frame of the left wing. Anger built in her for the creatures. There was no way she could fix the wing in her current situation. Any metal or other materials in this world wouldn’t be able to sustain the components that made up the wing. 

 

Still stewing in her anger she followed the others in gathering their things back at camp. With it now day time they decided to continue on their journey by finding where the Trolls had been staying. Mercy refused to enter the awful smelling cave they found and chose to remain outside on a rock. She rolled her dark staff in her hands as she studied the new color to her outfit. The entire black theme was something she only had once and that was when she had been forced on a Blackwatch mission. It didn’t suit her but it blended well enough into the environment. But that didn’t mean she didn’t try to change it to a dark brown. Apparently the nanites had stopped working once more after the initial change of color. No matter how much she tried to reprogram the nanites the color still remained black. She sighed and closed the panels before bringing her staff closer to her face to continue examining.

 

Mercy was startled out of her thoughts by a loud shout from Thorin. She leaped off her rock with her blaster clutched tightly in her hands. The dwarves swarmed out of the cave with their weapons brandished, all except Gandalf were ready for a fight. Shuffling away from the brush, Mercy did her best to not show her fear. The world in which she was now residing in was taking a toll on how much she could handle in the span of a few hours. Her hands trembled on her blaster while her eyes flickered around the area frantically. Only one seemed to notice her distress. A heavy hand landed on her shoulder, making her jump out of her skin and round on the person. Nori held up his hand and let go of her to show he meant no harm. 

 

Turning away from him Mercy released a shuddering breath. Her heart was beating loudly in her ears, and almost drowned out the voice carrying through the wind. “Thieves! Fire! Murder!” A voice shouted as it came closer to them. Mercy scrambled back a few more feet as a sleigh pulled by rabbits entered the clearing. Her eyes wandered up the animals to the old man steering the sleigh. She grimaced at the bird poop on the side of his face. But she sensed the danger had passed and put her blaster down. The weapon remained her hand though, she wasn’t quite ready to put it completely away. 

 

Mercy started pacing around the small area to try and calm her nerves. What she really wanted to do was fly into the air and leave, but she had a feeling that was a bad idea. So instead she wrung her hands around the metal of her weapon and walked. The clinking of her armored boots didn’t help calm her like she thought it would. It made her more uneasy with each noise around her. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear the rustling of the brush above her. That was until something large and heavy landed on top of her, pushing her into the ground. A scream got caught in her throat as she caught sight of what was pinning her down. 

 

The creature looked like a mutated wolf of sorts. Humongous body carried on large limbs and giant paws. Sharp teeth were bared at her and hovering over her face while deadly claws scraped on her protective armor. Thankfully she was wearing it or else she might have bled out from the puncture wounds. The thing growled at her, its hot breath pushing back her blonde hair and making her eyes water. But as soon as it landed on her it was knocked away by a large hammer. 

 

She scrambled away from the writhing creature, trying to distance herself as much as possible. Once the thing had stopped moving she came to a halt in the leaves. Fear coursed through her trembling body and made it nigh impossible to get off the ground. With shaky breaths she tried to steady herself but she wasn’t given time as another of the same creature appeared. Thorin and Kili made quick work of it. Panicked breaths escaped the doctor as her wide eyes looked from one dead creature to the other. Tears had begun to trickle down her cheeks from the fright she received. Her nerves were beyond shot and when a hand pulled her up she swung around to hit something. 

 

Instead of hitting something another hand came up to stop her first. In her blind panic she couldn’t differentiate friend from foe at the moment. She wasn’t given the time to calm down and figure it out either as she was pulled along. Much too exhausted to scream she allowed whoever it was to pull her. The panic clouding her vision started to clear as a breeze brushed over her face. Blinking quickly she tried to focus her blurry vision. She drug in deep breaths of air once she focused on the bodies of the dwarves around her. Her fear was starting to subside with each stop they made behind rocks, but she didn’t know why they kept stopping and starting again. That was until Kili shot down another one of the creatures and something else came down with it.

 

Before she could scream a hand clamped over her mouth to keep her quiet. Wide blue eyes looked down to who was holding her still and found Nori watching Bifur kill the creatures. A squeak left her mouth as she was pulled out into the open once again. Her eyes looked around the area to find several more creatures starting to surround her. Fumbling with her blaster she pulled it out and started firing off shots the best she could. Nori seemed to be having none of it as he snatched the weapon away from her and pushed her behind him. Mercy couldn’t get a protest passed her dry lips at the disrespect. But even if she wanted to help fight she shaking too much to be of any help. 

 

Around her shouts of the dwarves echoed along with another harsh language being spoken. Her eyes flickered from the battle ready dwarves to the disgusting creature closing in on them. Mercy struggled bring any air into her lungs as they seized in her panic. The sounds around her faded in and out between the ringing in her ears. Everything around her was blurring together in a mesh of color and loud sounds. She didn’t get long in her state before someone was pushing her once again. A whimper left her mouth as she slid down something solid and curled in on herself once she stopped moving. Her arms wrapped around her legs that were pressed against her chest with her head buried into them. 

 

A hand touching her shoulder sent her floundering and smacking at anything that was close enough. More than a few grunts were heard from those that she hit. Tears trickled down her face as her chest constricted and tried to stop her breathing. She gasped for air once her lungs allowed her the chance. Her entire body was shaking as she started to come back to her senses. First she could feel rough stone underneath her and hear the sounds of people talking above her. Her nose brought her the fresh scent of running water and caverns. Mercy placed a hand on the ground next to her try and regain the balance that had left her. 

 

After what felt like hours Mercy was calm enough to open her eyes and lift her head. She blinked tiredly up at the faces surrounding her, all of which held some degree of worry and concern. Voices spoke above her but she didn’t bother trying to understand what they were saying. She let go of her legs and stretched out her limbs to loosen the cramping muscles before she clambered to her feet. A pair of hands shot out to steady her but fell when she flinched away. Instead of answering any questions that were being asked she trailed after the dwarves disappearing through a crack in the rock wall.


	4. Chapter 4

The coolness of the cave tunnel in which she walked through did wonders to calm her erratically beating heart and racing thoughts. Her breathing had evened out and her trembling had lessened, but it still racked her worn out body. Even with the calming sounds of running water and the soothing tones of the company she couldn’t shake herself of the trance she had fallen in. It was like someone else was moving her body while she sat back and watched from within her mind. It was both concerning and relaxing at the same time, not to have to worry about moving and keeping from falling. Everything around her was dulled in sound other than the rushing of water from somewhere nearby. She couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than the calming sound. 

 

Around her the dim light in the tunnel faded into something brighter, but not as bright as the midday sun. It helped her focus somewhat on her surroundings but not enough to clear up the cotton in her head. From a doctor’s standpoint she knew was probably in shock from the events that had transpired, and those leading up to them. She just couldn’t find enough energy to care. Instead she followed along with the group as they moved across a beautiful land. Her eyes travelled over the marvelous landscape, taking it in but not really seeing it. All she could do was continue walking on the path set out for her. 

 

Breathing steadily she stopped with the group on a balcony of sorts. She was still too out of it to understand where she was or what she was surrounded by. All of the beauty of it was lulling her into a sense of security and safety. It did wonders on clearing her head but not enough for her to focus on the things happening around her. One thing that did bring her out of the trance, if only for a panicking second, was a rough hand pulling her into the middle of the group. Her flinching movement didn’t go unnoticed as the hand let go of her quickly. Relaxing back into her trance like state she let her gaze wander the area around her. 

 

But she didn’t get long to look before someone was guiding her up a set of stairs. The smooth motion didn’t start up her panic again nor did it make her want to pull away. A soothing music was playing around her as she was lead into a room, away from the company. She went along with the lovely young woman guiding her towards a tub full of water. The longer she was in this place the more the fog in her mind was clearing up. With the help of the woman Mercy was taken out of her suit and helped into the tub of warm water. Closing her eyes and relaxing she finally broke out trance that held control over her.

 

As soon as the fog disappeared she was sitting up in the water and looking around. The bare but beautiful room eased the worry starting to grow within her. Her eyes roamed for a moment before landing on the dark haired woman crouched at the end of the tub. She took in the smooth dress she was wearing and the pointy ears poking out from her hair. The woman was certainly gorgeous in an unnatural sort of way. Clearing her throat Mercy got the woman looking at her.

 

“Um, where am I? What happened to the others?” Her voice was soft to her own ears. The woman offered a reassuring smile that eased Mercy’s worry.

 

“You are in Rivendell, Lady Angela. And the dwarves have been lead to where they can clean themselves before dinner.” The woman’s voice was smooth and calming. Mercy nodded and looked down at her body sitting in the warm water. “I’ll leave you to clean yourself.” She dipped her head in a bow and stood to leave the room.

 

“What’s your name?” The woman paused just by the open door and turned back to her with a smile.

 

“Linnliel, My Lady.” Without another word she left Mercy in the room by herself.

 

Humming quietly, Mercy took out her ponytail and shook out her hair. It hadn’t left the tail in several days and needed a good wash. As did the rest of her body, which was starting to smell despite the work of the cleaning nanite. Taking quite a bit of time she laid down in the tub and soaked her hair to wash out the grease. Then she went about scrubbing the rest of her body down with the flowery smelling soap she found sitting nearby. When she finally got out of the bath she was feeling much cleaner than she had in days. She dried off with robe she found sitting next to a blue dress. 

 

Now she wasn’t much one for a dress but she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to wear something clean. Without much hesitation she slipped on the long sleeved dress and matching flats to go with it. Once dressed she did her best to dry her hair but eventually she had to leave it hanging loose on her shoulders. Water dripped down her back as she stepped to the door and opened it. Outside stood Linnliel waiting to show the way to where dinner was being held. Mercy asked multiple questions pertaining to where she was and about the area on the way to Elrond’s dining balcony, so she’d been told. 

 

By the time they got close she could already hear the sounds of soothing music and mutterings of the dwarves. She smiled softly at the elf walking beside her before she entered the area alone. The dwarves muttering stopped once they spotted her approaching figure. She walked passed them and settled down on the seat next to Bofur. The low down tables reminded her of the traditional tables in Japan that Genji had showed her once. Even the cushions were reminiscent of it in her mind. Not yet meeting the faces of those around her she looked down at the salad placed in front of her. She couldn’t stop the relief from showing on her face at not having to eat any meat at the moment.

 

“Are you doing alright, lass? Ya gave us quite a scare earlier,” Bofur said. Mercy looked over at him then at the others looking at her. Her nose twitched at all the eyes watching her but she just looked back at Bofur.

 

“Meine Entschuldigung, I didn’t mean to worry you.” She slipped into german without thinking about it. Those around the base had gotten used to small phrases she used when she got caught in her thoughts. She didn’t even pause to think that the dwarves wouldn’t have clue as what she was saying.

 

“What language are ya speaking? Ain’t never heard anything like it.” Mercy looked over to where Balin was sitting next to Bilbo. All of the dwarves looked just as curious as the older dwarf. She cleared her throat and looked away for a second.

 

“It’s my native tongue. German. It’s a bit of a harsh language compared to some others, so English is just easier to use for others,” she said. Rather than answer any more questions she picked up a fork and shoved a thing of leaves in her mouth. 

 

The dwarves seemed to get the end of the conversation and went back to talking amongst themselves. Mercy was content to just listen to them talk and complain about the atmosphere, finding it quite funny. Especially when Kili mistook a male elf as a female maid. She couldn’t stop her laughter at his flustered face. But one thing she couldn’t understand was why the dwarves were so against the flutes and harps playing in the background. She found them soothing to listen too. Many of the others had a different opinion on the matter though.

 

“Change the tune, why don’t you? I feel like I’m at a funeral.” Nori said, looking back at one of the elves playing the harp. Mercy looked over the red haired dwarf with curious blue eyes, she found the music lovely to listen too. 

 

“Did somebody die?” Oin asked, not quite hearing all the words because of the napkin shoved in his hearing trumpet. 

 

“Alright lads, there’s only one thing for it.” Mercy looked back to Bofur as he started to get up from his seat.

 

She watched amused as he walked across the table to stand on the raised platform between the two tables. A smile danced on her lips as he started singing a lively song and stomping his foot. Soon enough the other dwarves were clapping and stomping along to create a beat for Bofur’s singing. All she could do was laugh and listen as all of them started singing along as well, filling the once quiet area with their voices. If she knew the song she might have joined in herself, but she was just content to listen and watch for the moment. The one thing she couldn’t quite condone was when they started throwing food around.

 

Around her rolls of bread and green leaves were tossed across the balcony and at each of the other dwarves. The laughter that was escaping came to a screeching halt has something smacked her in the face. Blinking slowly she looked down to the pile of leaves now sitting in her lap then in the direction they came from. Her eyes spied the guilty culprit sitting at the other end of the table with another handful of leaves. The noise had died down around her at the serious expression on her face. Then to everyone’s surprise, even her own, she picked up her plate and flung the salad right back at Nori. Laughter erupted from the dwarves as the leaves hit the thief in the face. 

 

Mercy grinned back at the spluttering dwarf with both hands brought up to clap together in front of her. It’s been such a long time since she’d been this carefree and joyful. And her joy didn’t end either when more leaves were tossed at her to which she retaliated by throwing a bread roll at his head. Thankfully nobody tossed anything worse than leaves at her or else she would have had to clean up again. Nori got close to throwing mashed potatoes at her but one unamused look had him aiming it at Bofur with a mumbled, “Fine,” tossed her way. But soon their fun had to come to an end as the elves ushered them out of the dining area. Mercy tried to stay and help clean up but she was shooed away with the rest of them.

 

Still laughing to herself she picked out leaves from her hair from her spot on the ground. The dwarves had decided to stay out in the gardens for their duration of their stay in Rivendell. They argued for her stay outside with them, saying they wanted to watch over her or something of the sort. She finally agreed after getting confirmation from Linnliel that her clothes and suit would be returned to her at breakfast the next day. So now she sat under a gazebo in the middle of the gardens around a fire made from elvish furniture. Many of the dwarves sat on the ground with her while Bombur sat on a table and Dwalin stood leaning on a pillar. Thorin, Balin, and Bilbo were missing as well as Gandalf for some meeting with Elrond. 

 

“So, Mercy, what is your world like? Got anybody waiting for ya to come back?”  Mercy stopped pulling leaves to look over at Kili sitting across from her near Bombur. The bright smile on her face dropped into something softer, sadder almost.

 

“My world? Well it’s definitely nowhere near as beautiful as this one.” Her voice had quieted down as well, causing everyone else to go silent to listen. She looked away from the dwarves and into the fire as her smile dropped. “Most of the countries are war torn, and those that aren’t are trying to keep the peace between the free Omnics and hostile humans. Don’t get me wrong we still have pretty places, my home country included, just nothing as pure as this place.” Twitching her nose she shook herself of the darkening thoughts to finish answering the other questions.

 

“As for anybody waiting for me? I’d say quite a few people are. The new recruits that I was helping train. Hana Song, a young war veteran from Korea piloting her Meka suit, and Lucio Correia dos Santos, revolutionary freedom fighter from Brazil. Then there’s Jack and Ana who had said they were coming to Gibraltar to rejoin Overwatch. Of course, Reinhardt and Brigette that had just arrived. Torbjorn said he was coming for a visit with the Bastion Unit to get the Omnic away from the kids and Ingrid. Winston and McCree were supposed to stop by my office later that day when I left. Lena was off visiting her girlfriend in London. And then there’s Genji.” A soft had made its way onto her as she talked of her teammates. “I was going to check over his cybernetics before he left to bring his mentor, Zenyatta, to base. He was complaining about a pain in his shoulders the other night.” 

 

Mercy shook her head and looked away from the fire. All of the dwarves were sharing looks that she couldn’t decipher. Not that she cared too, it was none of her business and she was too caught up in her thoughts. But she was pulled from them by someone else asking something.

 

“Anyone special waitin’ for ya?” Mercy looked over at Bofur sitting right next to her. He had a cheeky grin on his face that had her laughing again.

 

“No, not at the moment. Genji and I had a thing going in the past but it didn’t work out. He was too invested in taking down his family’s criminal empire and disgust over his new body that we couldn’t work through the issues. He had held a some sort of hatred towards me for saving his life at first before he worked through it. Then we tried just before Overwatch got shut down, and he had gotten out of the disbanded Blackwatch, just after a mission in Havana. But we just weren’t meant to work out as he fell for his mentor.” She grinned up at the sky for a moment before looking back to the dwarves. “I was hoping to meet this Omnic Monk, but I guess things change.”

 

“Do you still wish to be with him?” Her blue eyes looked over to where Dori was sitting with Ori next to him and Nori on his other side. 

 

“I haven’t wanted to date him for several years now. Working out in the field and receiving his letters kind of cleared up the feelings I once had for him.” She placed her head on her hands and continued to watch the dwarves in front of her. 

 

“What do you mean by ‘working out in the field’?” Ori asked from his spot, voice quiet. Mercy hummed to herself as she debated between telling the young dwarf the truth or just glossing over it. 

 

“I’m a doctor, I work to heal those that have been injured.” She started having decided on her choice. “Back in my world wars are sadly a very common thing, and during those wars the soldiers need medics to take care of their wounds. Most times the ones that survived the fight would return to camp to be healed. Other times medics would go out into the fight with them to try and save their lives in the middle of the fire. I don’t exactly go out in the field anymore, preferring to stay on base, but there are times when I have to join them.” Mercy cut herself off before she could ramble on like she had the other day. She didn’t wish to travel down those memories even as they krept into her thoughts.

 

“So, are you a warrior as well?” Dwalin asked from his leaning spot. 

 

“No, nowhere close actually. The training I have is from the basics of what Overwatch taught me. I only carry a weapon to protect myself, and to ease the minds of those that are with me,” she answered. The atmosphere around the group had grown somber and quiet after her words.

 

Mercy closed her mouth and resigned to sitting silently next to Bofur. She listened as conversation came back to the company but she didn’t participate in it. Instead she settled down on her side and watched the fire until sleep decided to claim her. 

 

The next morning she was represented with her now clean jeans and sweater and her Valkyrie shining like she had done it herself. She didn’t really converse with the dwarves and they seemed to understand her hesitance and didn’t push any talk onto her. Which she was thankful for. But she wasn’t allowed to get out of talking for the rest of the day as Elrond wanted to speak with her. While she was both nervous, and not at the same time, she carried on wandering Rivendell looking at the architecture. She had changed back into her jeans before though, not feeling like walking around in a dress.

 

It was well passed the afternoon when Linnliel came and found her sitting by a giant fountain. The elf guided her to a secluded balcony where she could see the tall figure of Elrond standing. She was left to join him on her own and she did so cautiously. She had not a clue on what he could want to discuss with her. 

 

“Are you doing well, Lady Angela?” His voice didn’t startle her like she thought it would. She joined him near the balcony and leaned on the stone railing, looking out across the rest of Rivendell.

 

“I am. Thank you for allowing us to stay here,” she answered. The elf hummed to himself beside her but didn’t comment for a long time.

 

“I wish to discuss with you your arrival into our world. Mithrandir knew very little about it and I was hoping you could shed a fair bit of light.” It was Mercy’s turn to pause and think. She had wondered about the circumstances of her being in this world more than once, and she couldn’t come up with any plausible way how.

 

“There is not much I know about it myself,” she admitted. “I was working in my office when it started changing into that of Bilbo’s dining room.” 

 

“And that is all you know?” Elrond asked, glancing down at her. Upon receiving her nod he turned back to his kingdom. “This is a very odd situation indeed. I hope you do not leave this world before whatever is you need to do is done. I bid you good rest of the day.”

 

Mercy watched as the elf walked away from her in a billow of his robes. A sigh left her mouth at the exchange before she left to continue wandering the gardens.

 

Dinner was much calmer than it was the night before. Nothing was thrown nor any songs sung, but there was an abundance of talk. Mercy joined in with some of it but mostly kept to herself and her salad. Unlike the night before they didn’t sit by a fire for several hours, they went back to their spot in the garden and laid down to sleep. Gandalf had informed them that they needed to leave Rivendell before dawn and wait for him in the Misty Mountains. While she didn’t know where that was, Mercy laid down to get as much sleep as possible before she was woken up again.

 

Just before the sun was rising she was shaken awake by Bofur and handed her satchel. She made quick work of putting on her Valkyrie suit and putting her clothes away in the brown bag. She still had yet to pull out the daggers or journal from it, but she could feel it was going to be used at some point soon. The start of the day was quiet and rushed, trying to get all of them at the edge of Rivendell territory by the time the sun had risen. Mercy kept her satchel with her unlike at the start of the journey but she couldn’t carry the bedroll she had been using. It wouldn’t sit on her wings like she had planned and kept falling before Nori took it from her. 

 

They continued on for the rest of the day in mostly silence, not even Fili and Kili were talking. It wasn’t until they settled down for the night at the base of the mountains that things took a turn for the more normal. Mercy helped Bombur cook by essentially stealing pieces of the vegetables while he did the actual cooking. They talked and laughed as the others set up the camp around them. Once dinner was served and finished she found herself sitting next to Nori and his brothers. They were discussing something she didn’t know about but she was content to just listen. To keep herself busy she took down her hair from its ponytail and started braiding her bangs back to keep them off her face. They were starting to grow longer than she wished. Why she didn’t think to do it before she didn’t know, but if she had to guess it would because she was flying before. When their conversation seemed to come to a stand still she decided to join in.

 

“So, do you guys actually go through the trouble to do that to your hair?” She looked from Dori’s braids and bun to Nori’s star esque style. Her fingers finished her braid and pulled her hair back into its usual ponytail. The three dwarves turned to her with equal expressions of bewilderment and confusion.

 

“Of course we do! Hair doesn’t look this good on its own!” Nori exclaimed, answering on his brother’s behalf. Mercy raised an eyebrow and studied his auburn hair. The three mohawk type peaks on his head confused her greatly but not nearly as much as the fact that his eyebrows were braided into them. A hum left her lips as she tried to stop herself from laughing at the odd style. It surprisingly suited the dwarf very well and he seemed to be working it nicely, not that she would know. 

 

“Hmm, I’m not sure I’d go as far looking good.” At his frowning face she offered him a grin and soft laugh. “But it does fit you, Herr Zwerg.” Her words brought a grin back to his face that she couldn’t deny belonged there. 

 

“I don’t know what you said, lass, but I’m going to take it as a compliment,” he said. 

 

“Well, I just said Mister Dwarf, but it could be a compliment,” she laughed. She looked back up at his hair with a thoughtful look on her face. “Would you wear it a different way?” Her eyes trailed down to meet his contemplative green ones.

 

“Not likely, lass. I’ve had my hair like this for as long as I can remember.” He shook his head at her and looked to change the topic. She felt his eyes travel to her own hair then stop on the wings on her back. “How broken is the contraption on your back?” 

 

Mercy looked over her shoulder at the left wing but she couldn’t see the break in it. Sighing she reached a hand back and pressed on the panels to release them. Her hands caught them and pulled them forward to rest in her lap. The right laid untouched on her legs while she held the left one in her gentle hands. She had to award the elves for not damaging it more while they were cleaning, it was polished much like the rest of her black armor. 

 

“Not enough to be a problem, thankfully. But any more pressure on it and it will be next to useless. Your world doesn’t have the materials I need to fix it sadly. I honestly don't know what I’d do if the wing stopped working.” She turned it over in her hand and ran her fingers over the golden plates that showed where the ‘feathers’ started. 

 

“May I?” Nori held out a hand to her, wanting to take a look at the wing. Mercy gave him a side eyed look before handing it over. The dwarf flipped it one way then the other looking it over closely. “Bifur might be able to help in strengthening it.” He held out his hand for the other wing to compare the two, to which she was skeptical on giving him. She didn’t easily forget about his sticky fingers. But she ultimately placed the right wing in his other. 

 

“There isn’t much anyone can do for it without Torbjorn’s tools or my own,” she said. It’s not that she doubted Gloin’s expertise, it was just that this world was so different from her own. 

 

She allowed Nori to look over the wings for well passed what she would’ve done with others. While she did keep an eye on him, she wasn’t concerned he’d break them even more. In fact she didn’t try and take them back even as she settled down to sleep by the fire, after taking off the rest of the black armour of course. Too which the dwarf took it upon himself to study as well in place of the wings he put by her side. She actually didn’t mind Nori looking over her stuff, she knew he would give back whatever he pocketed at some point, and fell asleep way before he put the armor back.


	5. Chapter 5

The next few days was a very tiring ones for everyone in the company. They travelled quite a bit of the Misty Mountains pass and the rocky terrain wasn’t agreeing with Mercy’s heeled boots. She would have twisted her ankles several times over if she wasn’t wearing her wings. At first she planned to keep them in her satchel with her staff and blaster, but decided against it once she saw the towering mountains. While her boots weren’t doing her any favors she was enjoying the fact that her suit’s heating capabilities had started working again. That far up in the mountains was snowy and cold but thankfully they passed by most of the snow. 

 

The part of the journey that was dragging on her was the fact that it was raining. She made quick of putting her wings in the satchel to avoid crushing them against the stone wall behind her. The ledge in which the company was standing on was very narrow and slippery, and she would’ve kept the wings on except for the fact she wouldn’t be able to press against the wall. She was silently cursing their predicament and only grew more irritated as something started throwing boulders at them. Much to invested in her own thoughts she didn’t catch what was being said. Rain pelted her and dripped off her armor, she was starting to miss the cloak she had been wearing during the last rain storm. 

 

Soon her attention was drug from the rain to the fact that the ledge she was standing started to move under her. A shocked shout got stuck her throat as she was swung around with half of the company. The other half was on the other knee of the rock giant that came out of the mountain. Steeling her nerves she leaped onto the stable ledge with the rest of the dwarves around her. But her heart got caught in her throat at seeing the others still riding with the giant. All she could do was watch them struggle to stay on as the giant was knocked down and slammed into the side of the mountain. She started shouting for the dwarves as she followed them to where the group would have landed. 

 

Her hands ran over the dwarves to make sure they were all in fine health when she was drug away by Bofur shouting. Fear bubbled up when she saw Bilbo hanging off the edge of the cliff. She dropped to her knees and reached out a hand to grab him but soon had to get on her stomach to be even close. Just as her fingers brushed over the Hobbit’s he slipped farther down the rocks. A shout escaped her as Thorin swung down to throw the Hobbit backup to them. She pushed herself up to her knees, not even feeling the mud dripping from her, and checked over Bilbo quickly. 

 

“I thought we’d lost out burglar,” Bofur said. He was standing right next to her in looking over the Hobbit.

 

“He’s been lost since he stepped foot outside his door.” Mercy didn’t bother listening to Thorin as she rose to her feet. Not even bothering to brush off the mud she turned to find the one dwarf she had yet to check over. 

 

She didn’t get the chance to find him as Bofur ushered her into a dry cave. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light in the cave quicker than she expected. A frown was permanent on her face until she found who she was looking. But with so many dwarves and the darkness it was getting increasingly harder. Instead of worrying, to much, she stayed next to Bofur at the entrance of the cave. She was about to pull the satchel off before she thought better of it and left it hanging off her. The sounds of the dwarves settling down had her turning to try and find who she was looking for without all the trouble. Once she found him she stepped around quiet dwarves and sat down right above his head on a rock.

 

Neither said a word as she went about pressing her fingers to find any wounds or bruises. Her nose twitched against a stray drop of water that fell from her hair, other drops trailing down her face and neck. She moved a hand to wipe off her face to find another holding out a part of his cloak to her. Smiling slightly she took the offering and did her best to dry off her face and hair without taking out her ponytail. Once she got it as dry as she could she let go of the cloak with a shake of her head.

 

“Thank you.” She whispered, making sure to keep quiet for the sleeping dwarves. Nori shrugged and placed the wet corner onto the sandy ground. Instead of saying anything just yet, she felt his eyes trace over her dirty armor. Now that she wasn’t so focused on helping Bilbo she could feel mud underneath the black armor and dripping into her boots.

 

“I don’t think my cloak is going to clean the rest of that up,” Nori said. He nodded to the slowly drying mud and, now, dirt on her arms. Humming noncommittally she brushed off a large section of mud and flung it to the ground. 

 

“That’s not even the worst of the problem. I’ve got mud pooling in the bottom of my boots and soaking into my undershirt.” She shook her head and leaned down to pry off her boots, leaving the body armor on. Both of them watched the mud drip out of the upside down boot with some degree of amusement. 

 

Mercy resigned herself to cleaning out her boots before even trying to settle down for the night. She was sitting next to Bofur at the entrance of the cave to use the rain to rinse them out, cleaning nanites can only do so much. Once she determined them clean enough she placed herself back next to the sleeping Nori. Before she could allow herself to sleep she took out her wings and placed them back on her shoulders. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she would need them to be at the ready at any moment. But then again that feeling could be attributed to the fact of what had just occurred. Her eyes looked over all of the sleeping dwarves before settling on the auburn haired one next to her. Even knowing he was alright she couldn’t help the way her heart constricted at the thought of him being in danger. She didn’t know where these feelings come from towards the dwarf but she wasn’t going to try and stop them if it kept him from harm. 

 

Shaking herself thoroughly she finally curled up in the soft sand next to Nori. He had set up her bed roll somewhere else in the cave but she didn’t wish to go find it. Wanting to know he wasn’t in any immediate danger she stayed right by his side. For more than the second time that day she thanked herself for putting heating in her suit. The suit kept her warm and comfortable as she fell into a fitful sleep.

 

Shouting startled Mercy out of her light sleep. She shot up quickly to find out what was wrong but she didn’t get the chance as the cave floor split open. A scream left her mouth as she tumbled down a tunnel with the dwarves smacking into her. She cursed herself for putting her wings on as she heard a loud cracking echoing along the tunnel. Sharp pain travelled up her shoulder from where the wing connected to her nervous system, to make sure they reacted to her commands properly. Trying her best to keep her head on her shoulders during the continuing tumbled she wrapped her arms around her head. The burning pain in her shoulder grew consideringly worse when she finally stopped falling and fell flat on top of the dwarves.

 

Their shouting and groans were drowned out by loud screeching coming closer to them. Mercy scrambled off the dwarves the best she could with a limp left arm, the nerves and muscles not quite sure what to do with the pain. She could feel the left wing hanging down her back powerless and looked over her shoulder to look at it. But instead of focusing on the wing her eyes latched onto the short disgusting creatures rushing towards her. A scream left her mouth as she was grabbed and shoved roughly between several of the creatures. Behind her she heard the dwarves struggling as well to no avail. Panic was taking over her body like it had back in the forest. It overroad her pain and had her twisting and turning in the foul creatures hands. She screamed and cried as she tried to get away from them, but no matter what she did they still shoved her along.

 

Mercy gasped for breath as her lungs refused to take in air and her heart constricted in her chest. The loud screeches and awful music surrounding her rang in her ears, drowning out any rational thought she could’ve had. Never before in her life had she been a situation like this and she couldn’t even begin to try and stem the panic. It didn’t lessen any when the creatures released her either, their cheering still loud in her ears. The second those things were no longer holding her she opened her eyes to take in where they had been taken. Tears streamed down her face from both the panic and pain that she was starting to feel once again. Wet blue eyes flickered from one spot to the next, hardly taking in what she was seeing. But they stopped once they landed on the large, flabby, creature standing before them. 

 

She did her best to muffle her shout into her right hand at the sores and warts decorating the large creature. It both disgusted and panicked her. But she didn’t get long in her looking before a hand was settled on her right arm. Spinning around she got ready to strike whatever was touching her but faltered at seeing Nori. Dropping her fist she felt part of her panic starting to subside at seeing the dwarf. The sight of him didn’t stop the pain in her shoulder or chest, but it did let her steady her breathing. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, doing her best not to gag at the stench, to stop her shaking. It took a moment before she was nodding to herself that she would be fine. Her one miniscule second of peace disappeared before it even had the chance to be processed.

 

“Who would be so bold to come armed into my kingdom?” Mercy opened her eyes again to see the large creature watching them. “Spies? Thieves?! Assassins!?!”

 

“Dwarves, and a woman, your malevolence.” Another creature said from in front of them. Mercy shuddered at the sound of their voices, not liking the sounds one bit. 

 

“Dwarves?”

 

“We found them on the front porch.”

 

“Well don’t just stand there! Search them!” Mercy struggled against the creatures trying to take her satchel off. She slapped and punched but it didn’t stop them from ripping it off of her. The rough treatment pulled over her broken wing and set off a new flair of pain. “Every crevice.” Several hands went to where her armor connected to her body and over the hard material protecting her breasts. Despite being searched themselves the dwarves rounded on the creatures feeling up Mercy. 

 

Suddenly the hands disappeared from her body as the sounds of multiple things clattered to the ground. Mercy hugged herself the best she could while looking to what caused to noise. A pile of elvish things were laying in a pile in front of the group. Despite the situation, Mercy turned to Nori with a disapproving glare. He looked away from her with an almost guilty expression, they both knew he wasn’t sorry. 

 

“They are in league with elves!” One of the creatures cried while holding up a golden candlestick. The king of the creatures, from what she could tell, stepped closer and took the candlestick to study it. 

 

“Made in Rivendell. Second Age, couldn’t give it away.” He tossed it to the side without another thought. All the other dwarves turned to where Nori was standing next to Mercy.

 

“Just a couple of keepsakes,” he shrugged. Mercy glared down at him again but didn’t voice her opinion on the matter. 

 

“What are you doing in these parts?” The king asked. Mercy watched as Thorin was about to step up when Oin took his place. If they weren’t in this exact situation she would have found it funny how both Oin and Bofur tried to spin a story on why they were there. They didn’t get far before the large king was shouting at them.

 

“Shut! Up!” Everyone stopped talking at the loud command. “If they will not talk, we’ll make them squwock. Bring up the bonebreaker. Start with the female!” Mercy shouted as several of the creatures tried to bring her to the front of the group. Before they could even move her Thorin interrupted.

 

“Wait!” Everyone parted for the dwarf king to walk forward. 

 

“Well, well, well. Look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, king under the mountain.” The large creature mock bowed down to Thorin. “Oh, but I’m forgetting. You don’t have a mountain. And you’re not a king. Which makes you...nobody really.” Everyone was quiet as they waited for either Thorin to speak or the creature to continue. “I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours. The pale orc astride a white warg.”

 

“Azog the defiler was destroyed. He was slain in battle long ago,” Thorin said. Mercy couldn’t help the feeling that he was terribly mistaken.

 

“So you think his defiling days are done, do you?” The large creature laughed before turning to smaller one sitting in a bucket on a wire. “Send word to the pale orc. Tell him I have found his prize.” Mercy watched as the little creature scribbled down something before taking off into the dark.

 

For several minutes Mercy stayed huddled close to the center of the dwarves. She didn’t want any more of those creatures, goblins actually now that she was informed, touching her. Her shoulder was still in pain despite the nanites doing their best to heal the nerves, and she felt dirty from where those things had touched her. Around her echoed the voice of the Goblin King as he sung about torturing them. She was trying her best to fight off the rising panic again and was having an easier time doing so with Nori’s hand still on her arm. The heavy feeling of his hand kept her mind grounded.

 

And her panic was subsiding slowly, while starting to raise at the same time which left her feeling drained. She moved her right arm to wrap it around her chest and clutch her next to useless left arm. It was getting harder to focus on her surroundings with the burning pain. But her focus was brought back to the present as one of the goblins pulled Thorin’s sword out of its scabbard. All of the foul creatures started screeching and backing away, the king going on about it being called the Goblin cleaver or something of the sort. The goblins started pulling all the dwarves apart to try and behead Thorin while also whipping everyone else. Mercy was well protected from the leather whips, all except for her face which received a few lashes. Blood welled up on her cheeks and dripped down her face.

 

Her blue eyes tried to find where Thorin was to try and help him escape his beheading, but it was unneeded. A bright white light sprung up from the center of the platform and brought with it a force that pushed all the goblins back. When the light faded Mercy found Gandalf standing before them with his sword brandished. She, along with the others, followed his orders to fight and get their weapons. Hopping over a fallen goblin she caught the satchel tossed back at her by Bifur. The strap fell across her body as she pulled out her blaster. But seeing all the others fighting in such close quarters she dropped it back in the bag and dug out the elvish daggers. They weren’t too terribly long or too short, they fit in her hands surprisingly well and weighed lighter than any dagger she’d ever held. 

 

Following everyone’s example she started slashing at the goblins trying to reach her. It sickened her to know she was killing and harming so many living things, having swore upon the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. But she knew that it was the only way to make sure she made it out alive. Shaking herself from her thoughts she pulled the daggers out of the falling body and ran to follow after Gandalf. When she was in the middle of the group she didn’t have to do much fighting, only stabbing the goblins when they got too close for comfort. She followed Gandalf and the dwarves in front of her, not stopping even as her heel got caught in the broken boards. Her ankle twisted as she tugged her foot free but she pushed on. With her wing broken she had to rely mostly on running to keep up though she would push herself enough to glide a bit farther. 

 

The sounds of battling goblins and dwarves was giving Mercy a headache, and combined with the excruciating pain in her shoulder from having to use her arm she wasn’t in the best of spirits. It seemed her nanites have either stopped working, which she knew they hadn’t since her cheeks had healed already, or there was nothing more they could do for her shoulder. In both cases she was beyond worried, but she wasn’t given the time of day to think on it. She had to stay vigilant or else be injured worse than she already was. Pushing her wing just a little bit more she glided onto the swaying bridge holding the dwarves. It tired her out more than she wished to think about, which is why she pushed it from her mind and continued on. But their running soon came to a stop as the Goblin King sprung up in front of them.

 

Mercy bit back a grimace as Gandalf slashed his stomach then throat. It would never settle well with her how these people could kill so easily. She shoved her daggers back in her satchel quickly as the bridge they were standing on started falling. Quite unsteady on her feet for the first time in several years she had to clutch onto Dwalin, who was trying his best to remain steady as well. Not wanting to fall to her death she tried to see how far the ground was and wondered if her wing would be able to slow her down enough if she jumped. Thankfully the bridge was being caught in the narrowing walls and slowed down their decent. Still not wishing to be caught under the debris Mercy leapt off the top of the bridge just as it touched the ground. She landed on the ground with a grunt as her wing hardly slowed down her fall.

 

Tears sprang to her eyes as her shoulder was jostled. The pain wasn’t receding any despite the fact that she could now move her arm freely. Well maybe not freely per say but enough to allow her use of it. She shook herself out and clutched onto her shoulder while she turned to face the destroyed bridge. She couldn’t stop her cringe when the body of Goblin King fell on top of the dwarves. Doing her best to help she pulled Nori up with Dwalin before turning to help Fili. The young dwarf waved off her help and clambered out of the rubble on his own. The small breather she was hoping to get after such an ordeal never came as Kili informed them of the goblins swarming down to them. Mercy clenched her teeth as she raced after Gandalf and the others towards the exit from the cave.

 

The feeling of sunshine on her skin almost made her stop completely in her running, and she would have if not for the hand pulling her along. It felt like years since she’d been outside even if it had only been maybe two hours, not counting the hours spent in the rain. She took in the towering pine trees as she passed them with a soft smile. When they finally came to a stop several meters away from the cave entrance she decided she needed to sit down. Shaking off whoever’s hand was holding her right arm she lowered herself to the pine needle covered ground. Closing her eyes against the onslaught of pain she curled her legs up under her. It kind of terrified her that her nanites weren’t working correctly, never before had they just not finished healing a wound. Then again this was the first time the implant patches had been damaged, maybe they couldn’t fix that kind of damage. 

 

With a sigh Mercy opened her eyes. She didn’t glance at the dwarves or wizard or even the newly returned Hobbit. Her eyes travelled over her shoulder to the wing hanging limply on her back. The panel in which it connected to her suit, and in turn special nerve patches, was smashed to ruins with the broken wing stem just barely keeping the pieces together. The dangling carbon fiber feather pieces sat together in a bunch as soft yellow light was flickering under the massive cracks. Seeing the damage of her wing brought a choked sob from her throat. There was no way she could possibly fix it in this world or even her own. The only way to fix the suit was to make another wing and hope to whatever was listening that her nerves weren’t fried. 

 

Lifting her right arm she reached behind her and tried to disconnect the broken wing. But her fingers were just shy of the panel. Mercy dropped her arm back to her lap and tried not to cry again. Her eyes burned as they stared at the ground beneath her, gathering tears despite her trying not to let them drop. Around her she heard the dwarves talking to Bilbo and Gandalf about something she couldn’t be bothered to understand at the moment. She was so caught up in her thoughts that the pressure on her left shoulder earned a startled shout. The burning in her shoulder flared up as she rounded on whoever decided to touch her. The anger in her body dropped as soon as she caught sight of Nori crouching with her broken wing. 

 

“Please.” Her quiet voice got the dwarf standing again holding the wing out to her. Mercy swallowed hard and took the appendage from his open palm. It looked worse now that she could see it clearly. She didn’t bother studying it before she shoved it into her satchel to be dealt with at a much later date. With just those small movements she could feel the pain in her left shoulder starting to lessen. The nanites were starting to work now that the thing causing the pain was gone. In seconds she had almost full range of movement, but the small victory was short lived.

 

Loud howls and screams startled her out of her bliss. She rounded on where the noises were coming from only to be pulled in the opposite direction. Without the help of her wings she had to be careful of her steps so as to not break anything. Whoever was pulling obviously had no quelms as they sprinted beside her until they could go no further. Mercy skidded to a stop just at the edge of a cliff with the dwarves around her. She looked from the drop to the advancing wolf like creatures, wargs she reminded herself, to where Gandalf was joining them. He shouted for them to climb the trees and they followed without complaint. Thankful for her gloves she didn’t have to worry about getting splinters from the tree she scaled up. Just as she reached a high enough branch a warg crashed into the trunk of the tree.

 

Suppressing a scream she climbed up higher to rest just under Gandalf on a sturdy branch. She turned to watch the advancing wargs with orcs sitting on their backs with a large pale one leading. Not understanding the language that was being spoken she ignored it in favor of checking on everyone in the trees. All thirteen dwarves and Hobbit were spread out between five trees lined up in a row with her own, causing some concern for all of them if they were to tip. And just as she finished reaching that conclusion the trees started toppling with the dwarves jumping from one tree to the next until all of them were in one tree. The only tree on the edge of the cliff as well.

 

Mercy searched through her satchel quickly to bring out her blaster to try and get the wargs off the tree. Gandalf seemed to have the same idea as fiery pinecones flew down to the dead grass. Nodding to herself, she brought up the gun to shoot just next to the animals. She couldn’t bring herself to harm animals no matter how dangerous they might have been. Though the dwarves had no such problems as they launched pinecones right at the wargs. Just when things seemed to be going in their favor things had to take a turn,

 

The tree they were all in started to fall backwards off the cliff. It slammed down hard enough to knock Mercy off her branch, and Dori and Ori as well. She held onto a single branch with her right hand while her left dangled close to Dori. A squeak let her mouth when she looked down at the drop below her, there was no way she was going to survive that if she fell even if her one wing decided to work. Her eyes looked back up to where Nori was crouched on the tree trunk in front of her branch then at Thorin as he clambered to his feet. Knowing where this was going she tried to pull herself up with her one arm but she didn’t have enough strength to do so. Swallowing thickly she looked down to where Ori was starting to slip from Dori and him from the tree. Decisions flashed through her mind at what she could do before deciding on the one that would benefit more than herself. Steeling her nerves she looked up to Nori, who was trying to reach her but her branch was cracking under her weight.

 

“Take my staff and blaster and help Thorin. They aren’t doing me any good right now.” She shoved the blaster in the satchel and lifted it from her body and tried to push it up to Nori. “Enough of my nanites are stored in the staff to be useful for a long time and the blaster recharges its shots on its own. Press the button on the bottom of the staff I liked you showed you and the triggers have signs on them to tell you which one does what.”

 

“What are you going on about, lass? I’m going to get you up here,” Nori said. He reached passed her satchel to try for her wrist but just fell short. Mercy shook her head sharply and shoved the satchel into his hand.

 

“I have to help your brothers.” She looked to where Dori was now clinging to Gandalf’s staff. She could tell he was slipping from the smooth wood. “Take them! My wing should be able to slow my decent enough to not kill me if I fall,” she lied. Nori didn’t need to know that in saving his brothers she probably wasn’t going to make it. The dwarf still looked unconvinced, looking between her satchel and his brothers.

 

“I don’t exactly know how to use your contraptions. It’d be best if you were up here using them.” Nori looked back at her and went to try and grab her once more when the branch cracked. 

 

“Nimm es, bitte. Gehen.” Mercy slipped back into German to try and get her point across, even though she knew he wouldn’t understand what she was saying. The branch holding her up wasn’t going to last much longer and she needed Nori to take her things. “You’re brothers are going to die if I don’t do something.” She glanced back at where Dori was just barely hanging on to the wood staff. Her eyes met Nori’s with a silent plea in them.

 

“Fine.” With no other words the dwarf took her satchel and slung it over his own body. Once she nodded to him he followed after the rest of the dwarves to fight back against the wargs. 

 

Nodding to herself at seeing that one problem was taken care of she spun slightly to face the falling dwarves. Gathering her nerves she swung out her long legs for Dori to latch onto once his grip finally slipped. She grunted at the extra weight but curled her legs up enough for her pull Ori up and over her body. Shoving him into the tree and then doing the same with Dori seemed to be the limit for both her recovering arm and the broken branch. Another loud crack sounded from the branch that had everyone nearby looking towards her. A shaky smile was placed on her lips to try and ease the tension when the branch snapped off the tree, falling to the ground with her in tow. 

 

“Angela!” Mercy closed her eyes and waited to hit the ground. She knew her remaining wing wouldn’t be able to do anything against the force of her downfall, but that didn’t mean she didn’t try to get it to work. The long yellow hard light feathers spread out to try and pull her up with no effect. Fear was surprisingly not present in her decent, even with the wind rushing passed her at a harsh speed. Just as she felt the ground closing in on her something large flew underneath her, catching her before she could slam into the ground. 

 

Opening her eyes upon realizing she wasn’t dead she found herself looking at large feathers. Shaking her head to clear it of the fog she sat up and tried to figure out what was going on. Wind was blowing back her hair, that had lost its ponytail holder, and kept it out of her face. Blue eyes looked from the stunning sunrise to the several large birds flying in the sky around her. Mercy looked from one bird to the next counting all of the men riding on their backs, the only one she couldn’t find was Thorin. But before she could worry she saw his limp body hanging from the claws of one of the giant birds. Taking several deep breaths she tried to come to terms with the fact that yes, she was still alive, and no, she wasn’t splattered on the forest floor. A laugh passed her lips that only she could hear as the wind carried it off. She knew she was riding an adrenaline high at the moment and everything would catch up to her sooner than later. 

 

Starting with the bone deep tiredness that swept over her body the second she stopped laughing. An ache was settling in her chest that she knew had nothing to do with her near death experience, and a throb was in her left shoulder. Laying back down on the soft feathers she tried to ease the hurt she was feeling. Her hand came up to rub against her chest only to be stopped by her black armor. Sighing heavily, she pulled almost all of the Valkyrie suit off of her frame, all except for her boots and underclothes. She rested it gently on the bird’s back before looking down at the form fitting black suit covering her body. It was the exact same it had always been and brought her some comfort that most of her suit was undamaged. Doing her best to ease the ache she rubbed the center of her chest, not quite sure what was causing the problem. But she didn’t bother trying to understand as the bird she was riding was starting to decent.

 

Stepping off the bird with her armor in tow she made a beeline for her satchel still with Nori. Thorin needed her attention at the moment even with Gandalf doing his magic to wake him. When she reached the dwarf holding her satchel she made quick work of dropping her armor and snatching up the condensed staff. Without a word to anyone she shoved through them and dropped to her knees to the still unconscious body of the dwarf king. She pressed the button on her staff and held it in her lap as it extended while she felt for Thorin’s pulse. The steady thrumming under her fingers had her body sagging in relief. Nodding to herself she picked up her staff and pressed down on the rightmost trigger letting her nanites travel from her body to Thorin’s. 

 

Once the dwarf’s eyes opened, and the scrapes on his face had healed, Mercy let off the trigger and set her staff down. She closed her eyes briefly as she listened to Thorin talk to Bilbo, willing herself to stay awake. The stress on her body from all the various injuries she’d had to heal herself from was already bad before she had to go and help Thorin. Opening her eyes she rose to her feet unsteadily and wrapped both arms around her middle. She watched with everyone else as a thrush flew by and towards the lone mountain on the horizon, Oin mistaking it for a raven. 

 

Once the moment had passed everyone turned to face where Mercy was standing in the middle of the group. Her staff abandoned on the stone along with her armor right next to her feet, just inches away from being stepped on. Her face was turned down to the ground and her body swayed in the nonexistent breeze. She closed her eyes against the ache in her chest and dizziness assaulting her senses, trying her best to stay standing. 

 

“Are you doing alright, lass?” Gloin asked from right next to her. Mercy went to nod but stopped before she could pitch forward with the movement. 

 

“I’m just a bit tired is all,” she answered. Her quiet voice startled a few of the dwarves around her, them not expecting her to be near silent. 

 

“It’s them nanates, or what have you in yer body, right?” Mercy lifted her eyes to look at Bofur, and then the others around her. She jerked her eyes back to the ground when she met Nori’s unreadable green ones. The ache in her chest grew stronger once she broke her line of sight.

 

“Nanites, Bofur. And they’re nearly gone at the moment,” she said. Sighing once again, she bent down to pick up her staff only to pitch forward harshly. She would’ve hit the stone if not for Bofur’s quick movement to catch her. “Ich bin fein, I’m fine. Just tired, I should be fine in a few hours.” Bofur stood her up right and held her there by her arms.

 

“Aye, ya need some rest, lass.” Mercy nodded along with the words spoken, not knowing who was actually talking at the moment. Her eyes fluttered closed as black spots started to creep up on her vision. With one last nod she allowed the darkness to take away her consciousness.


	6. Chapter 6

Sunlight shone through the heavy smoke in the air, pushing past to shine on the small group in the bloody streets. Purple metal parts littered the ground along with human body parts. Cries of the wounded slowly fell to nothing as nobody could reach them, several choked screams echoed between the buildings. In the middle of King’s Row Mercy stood facing down Bastion Units and OR14’s. Reinhardt, Tracer, and Torbjorn’s bodies lay broken and bloody around her. Their armor doing nothing against the spray of bullets coming towards them. Tears dripped down the doctor’s face at the sight of organs and limbs underneath her feet. Sobs racked her body and made her grip on the blaster shaky. She wouldn’t be able to shoot anything if her life depended on it which in this situation it did. 

 

    Mercy looked up from what was left of Tracer’s face to the turret Bastion Unit. Not a bullet shot at the doctor. The barrel stared her down, waiting for her to make a move like the thing that was controlling it was actually alive and thinking. An arm with a sautering iron on the end came up and waved at her. Another wave of sobs left her at the mocking motion of the Omnic. There was nothing for her to do other than cry and wait for the death that was taking forever to come. 

 

    Just as the sound of the barrel whirring to life a shout stopped it short. Mercy tried to find who was still alive only to have her breath caught in her throat. Running towards her was the company. Their weapons were brandished and ready for a fight, but it was never going to happen. The doctor cried for them to stop and leave the area, she pleaded and begged for whatever was listening to help them. But it wasn’t to be. One by one she watched them get slaughtered like sheep. Blood and organs flew through the air and hit her in the face, giant splotches and pools joined the already disgusting ground. 

 

    No matter how many bullets left the Bastion Unit none of them hit her. They tore through the shield of bodies in front of her, not sparing one of them. Mercy’s chest hurt from how much she was crying and her throat was raw from her screaming. For a second everything was quiet. Her eyes looked up to see only one other person still standing in front of her. Even from the back she couldn’t mistake the star esque auburn hair or the purple hood hanging down his back. Screaming for him to move, she scrambled to her feet to push him out of the way. Her body fell through his and made her trip, sprawling her on her front on the warm stone. 

 

    Trembling fingers tried to push herself up but the bloody stone kept her on the ground. The liquid seeped through her fingers and washed over the once pale skin. She cried out and flipped onto her back to keep her face out of the puddles. Only she wished she had stayed facing the other way. The dwarf still standing looked down at her with empty green eyes and her name on his lips. Then the Bastion Unit started up again and the body became nothing more than ribbons of flesh. His blood drenched Mercy as what was left of his body fell to the ground. A whistle from behind her made her head turn to see the same arm waving at her cheerily. With another wave the Bastion transformed and walked away from her, the other omnics joining. 

 

Sobbing and pleading to nothing, Mercy scrambled over the bodies around her. There was practically nothing left of her teammates. A pile of body parts and shredded armor was all that was left of the people that tried to protect her. The tears streaming down the doctor’s face did nothing against the red coating her cheeks. It dripped down her blonde hair and plopped onto her strangely clean hands. Covering her mouth, she moved to the last person that was with her. All that was left was a single green eye watching her. She screamed and pushed herself away only to slip on the blood under her. The thick liquid started rising around her, drowning out the bodies and climbing higher on her body. One last scream left her mouth before the blood completely covered her head.

 

Mercy shot up gasping for breath and scratching at her chest. It was tightening and something was squeezing at her lungs, cutting off any air flow. To make matters worse her stomach was rolling. A single breath entered her lungs before she was turning over to puke on the grass beside her. Tears gathered in her eyes before falling down her cheeks. She coughed harshly and wiped at both her mouth and cheeks. Her entire body was shaking and shivering as she hugged herself tightly. She rocked back and forth, trying to calm her beating heart and burning eyes.

 

A hand being placed on her shoulder had her crying harder and shaking her head. The sounds of bullets still echoed in her ears no matter how hard she was trying to stop them. Screams of the dead followed the terrifying echoing along with the imagined feeling of blood hitting her face. Scrambling away from whoever was touching her, she opened her eyes. Darkness surrounded her until her eyes adjusted to the night. Then she saw the sleeping bodies of the company around her and heard their snoring. Blue eyes looked away from them to find who had been touching her. 

 

Nori held up his hands in front of him and out towards her. A sob racked her body at the sight of him still breathing and in one piece. All the tension in her body seemed to fall away, making her lay back down on the ground. Her arms still hugged her stomach with her legs curled up against her chest. Not caring if somebody heard she started sobbing again. She felt Nori sit down next to her but only put a hand softly on her shoulder. It did little to help her but she was thankful for the small gesture. 

 

Slowly but surely her crying slowed to nothing as she watched as the sky started to lighten above her. A wave of exhaustion swept over her but she knew she couldn’t go back to sleep. Drawing in a shaky breath she uncurled her limbs and sat up. The hand on her shoulder fell away as she turned to face him. She rubbed a hand over her face and nodded to him, showing she was going to be alright. Neither of them said anything as they watched the sky turn a light purple and the others waking up.

 

Mercy was bombarded with questions the second they noticed she was awake, but she answered them with short words. Oin checked her over once more before they had to get moving again. She was slow at the start, still getting her limbs back in order, but soon she was jogging with everyone else. During the long hours she was informed on what had happened while she was out, from the orcs following them to the fact that she had been asleep for a full day. But with her assurance she was fine they continued on running.

 

A little over a week they had been running near constantly. Every night they stopped the ground they had gained from the orcs disappeared. Mercy was beyond exhausted and she knew the others were as well if their lagging behind was anything to go on. The sun was just setting behind the horizon when they stopped again between large rock formations. Thorin sent Bilbo up top to get a look at the orcs while everyone else waited with baited breath. The sounds of the wargs howling had the doctor jumping and looking up towards the Hobbit, wanting to know if he was okay. She didn’t have to wait long before Bilbo was sliding back down to them.

 

She kept quiet as she listened to the others talk about what he had seen, and just what else was out there. Picking up a loud roar of some creature she took a step closer to where Gandalf was standing. Just barely catching the last part of his words she spun on her heel and took off after him, not caring of the pain in her feet. Her boots weren’t meant for such rough terrain and it was starting to show in how sore her feet were starting to get. At first she thought to just run without them but one glance at the rocky ground made her reconsider and suck it up. Though that didn’t stop her from complaining to herself.

 

Running throughout the night and most of the day did little to help her situation. More than once she tripped on a sudden hole or stick only to have one of the dwarves pick her back up. At one point in the night she had to push Bombur forward when she stopped moving in front of her. Sadly she really wasn’t the best runner and was always at the back of the group. So when they burst out of the trees and a giant bear slammed out after them she was the closest to it. She felt someone wrap a hand around her arm and start tugging her faster to the front of the group. Looking forward once again she pulled back harshly as a large door came up in front of her. Bombur didn’t stop so soon and ran right into it. Even in the situation they were in, she couldn’t help the snort of laughter at the other dwarves running into the door. 

 

But when the door didn’t open she looked for the reason behind it and saw the metal bar covering the latches. Rolling her eyes she pushed up on the bar and the doors burst open, sending the dwarves rushing in. Behind them the large bear slammed into the closing doors, its head getting caught between the two. Mercy took her chances and shoved the creatures jaw harshly as the dwarves pushed to close the doors. Once the doors were closed she turned around to take in the large house they found themselves in. Her eyes bypassed almost everything as they went straight for the animals at the back of the house. A noise left her mouth as she made her way over to them. 

 

Gandalf told them that the bear outside was their host, which Mercy was almost surprised, before telling to get some rest. Taking his words to heart, she plopped down just beside a resting goat. It bleated at her and pushed its horned head against her arm. Smiling softly she rubbed her hands over its fur, causing it to lean heavily on her. She laughed and continued to pet the animal until she too fell asleep.

 

When she woke up it was just before dawn. The sky was still dark but she could just see where the sun was starting to rise. Yawning and stretching, doing her best to not wake the others she made her way to the doors. Not knowing if it was still safe or not she beckoned for the goat to follow her. The young creature bleated again and trotted up next to her. Grinning, she pulled open one of the doors and took a step outside. A headbutt to her legs got her moving faster and walking down the little pathway. 

 

She didn’t leave the area around the house, but she did wander around looking at everything. The goat continued to follow her and soon she gained a cat and some bees as well. It made her jump when the giant bumblebees landed on her head but she was able to brush it off and settle onto a bench. The tabby cat joined her on the bench, resting peacefully in her lap like Brigette’s cat used to do, while the goat grazed in the grass beside her. Two bees made it their duty to sit in her hair while another one danced from her nose to her hands. Just sitting outside with nature and its creatures did wonders to relax her. It had been a while since she’d been this stress free. Rivendell probably being the last time she could remember. 

 

But she didn’t get long to herself when a grunt came from above her. Looking up sharply she had to stop herself from crying in surprise. A very tall man was standing next to the bench without a shirt and a lot of hair trailing down his back. Despite her efforts a squeak left her mouth. Neither of them moved from a few seconds before Mercy remembered her manners.

 

“I’m sorry! You just surprised me,” she said. 

 

“Who are you? Why are you here?” 

 

“Oh, um, I’m Angela. My group and I were running from a pack of orcs and stayed in your house for the night. Thank you for letting us stay.” She looked away for a second to focus on the bee landing on her nose once again. 

 

“I did not let you stay here,” the man said. He turned away from her and picked up an axe from next to a pile of uncut wood.

 

“Thank you anyway.” She didn’t receive a response as the man brought his axe on a piece of wood.

 

Nodding to herself, Mercy stayed where she was and continued to love on the animals with her. The two of them remained in a comfortable silence while the sun continued to rise. Mercy only spared him one other glance before her attention was taken away by the black dog racing up to her. A pink tongue hung out of its mouth and dripped slobber on the grass. It dropped its head in her lap just next to the sleeping cat. Taking a second to check its gender, a girl by the way, she placed a hand on her head to scratch behind the floppy ears. She rubbed a hand down the soft black fur before the dog laid down at her feet. 

 

Mercy didn’t know how long she sat outside with the creatures, but it was at least an hour or two. The sun was fully in the sky and shining down brightly when the doors behind her opened. Leaning her head back she caught sight of Gandalf and Bilbo walking out and towards her. Offering them a grin she shook her head and motioned for them to go to the large man themselves. While she didn’t know his name she had already introduced herself and got his approval to be there. As if agreeing with her decision another bee nested into her hair, which was falling out of its ponytail with all of their messing. 

 

Unamused by her actions the wizard turned away and tried to get the man’s attention. In watching him struggle she learned the man’s name was Beorn and he wasn’t fond of dwarves at all. Which did raise some concern in her when the dwarves started pouring out of the house. Harsh eyes flashed over to her to which she answered with a sheepish grin and wave, making the cat in her lap look up with a yawn. She looked away from him to where the last of the dwarves were leaving to house. A laugh escaped her as Bofur pushed Nori out and down the set of stairs, causing him to stumble into a bow next to her. 

 

“That was graceful.” Her voice got him looking at her with a scowl clear on his face. She offered a grin and started removing the animals from her to stand up. The cat and dog were easy to move but the bees refused to be moved from her hair. Instead of fighting them she left them be as she made her way into the house with the others. 

 

While she helped Beorn make food for the dwarves she couldn’t help notice the quietness around her. Yes the animals were making noise but the company was strangely silent. Sitting down in the seat between Bofur and Nori she raised an eyebrow at everyone, to which they looked away. She rolled her eyes again and picked up an apple slice. The piece didn’t get far to her face before all the bees in her hair were suddenly on her hand. Sighing she grabbed another slice with her other hand to eat while the bees did what they wanted with the other. Looking away from the bees she met Nori’s curious gaze. All she had in response was a shrug and to reach for another apple slice.

 

She sat quietly with the others as Beorn questioned Thorin, it wasn’t her place to answer even if she did have the answers. The bees on her hand flew away with a buzz only to be replaced by a white mouse. Not even remotely paying attention to the conversation she poked at the mouse’s tail and watched it scramble over Bofur’s arm. Frowning slightly she reached across him to pick up the mouse but he had already pushed it off his arm. Beorn came up behind them and grabbed the tiny animal while telling them why he didn’t like dwarves. Mercy looked up at him then to the dwarf sitting next to her. Just before he turned to her she went back to watching the skinchanger. 

 

It was later in the day when they left the house. Beorn had allowed them to use his ponies and take some of his food with them to Mirkwood. They were in the middle of a small wooded area getting the ponies ready while Gandalf and Beorn talked a little ways away. Mercy helped strap some packs down to one of the ponies, but she really didn’t know what she was doing. Seemingly taking pity on her, Nori offered her a hand up onto his pony. A soft smile crept onto her face as she sat just behind the dwarf. 

 

“Thank you, for always letting me ride with you.” She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder but took it off quickly. A frown replaced the smile that was on her face as she went to find her satchel. It was missing from her side along with her blaster and staff. Her panic didn’t last long as Nori started laughing. 

 

“I have them. Swiped them from you last night while you were sleeping.” He looked over his shoulder at her stern face. “Lighten up, Angela. I was going to give them back, at some point.”

 

“You’re terrible. One of these days I’m not going to get them back. Then you’re going to see how much I’m not an angel.” Her threat fell on deaf ears as he started laughing again. She sighed and shook her head before joining in with his laughter. He was going to be the death of her. “Do I get them back anytime soon?”

 

“Hmmm, it’s possible.” 

 

“Nori!” She shoved his shoulder lightly and tried to find her missing things. The dwarf in front of her didn’t say anything as Thorin ordered for them to start riding. Grinning, she spotted the satchel hanging off of Bofur and laid her chin on Nori’s shoulder. “That was clever, I’ll give you that.” 

 

“Well, I do try.” 

 

They fell into a comfortable silence as they followed the other’s through the trees. Mercy watched the green grass under them slowly lose its color the closer they got to the towering forest in the distance. While she didn’t know anything about plants she knew something was horribly wrong with the nature before her. It made her uncomfortable and tense against Nori. He didn’t say anything which made her thankful because she wouldn’t have been able to give him a straight answer. She curled and uncurled her fingers to try and keep her mind off the fast approaching trees.

 

Sadly she wasn’t given the time to gather her nerves. The ponies stopped just outside the entrance and the others started unloading everything. Mercy hopped off the pony and wrapped her arms around her stomach. A sick feeling hung over her making her muscles tense and her stomach roll. Clearing her throat quietly she stepped away from the forest and closer to the ponies. 

 

“Release the ponies and allow them back to their master,” Gandalf said. Mercy looked over at him as he started for the carved entrance. Hugging herself tighter she crouched down to start untying whichever pony was closest. She didn’t get far into her work before someone was interrupting.

 

“Are you doing alright, lass?” Blue eyes shot up to see Oin standing in front of her. She nodded her head and flicked her gaze over to the forest quickly. The old healer seemed to get the idea and offered her an understanding smile. “Aye, I feel it too.” 

 

“Do you know what it is?”

 

“Fungus? No, I don’t think that’s the reason.” Oin shook his head at her and moved to join the others. Even with the sick feeling, Mercy gave a small laugh before standing up. Searching the area for Nori she started over to where he was undoing Gandalf’s horse before the wizard’s loud voice stopped her.

 

“Not my horse! I’m going to need it.” Mercy watched the old man exit the forest only to be stopped by Bilbo. She looked away from them and continued on her way over to the dwarves. Just as she reached them Gandalf stalked past and towards his horse.

 

“This is not the Greenwood of old. There is a stream in the woods that carries a dark enchantment, do not touch the water. Cross only by the stone bridge. The very air of the forest is heavy with illusion. It’ll seek to enter your mind and lead you astray.” Gandalf hopped up onto his horse and looked down on them. “You must stay on the path. Do not leave it. If you do you’ll never find it again. No matter what may come, stay on the path.” Just as he turned his horse to leave he spun it back around and looked down on them.

 

“Keep an eye on Miss Angela. The forest will affect her worse than it will you for she is not of this world. Should she wander off you will never see her again.” He turned his eyes to the doctor watching him. “Try your best fight the illusion. It will be hard and you might not be able too, but it is your best hope. If you feel the effects starting tell one of the dwarves.” Without another word the wizard took off in the direction they just came from.

 

Mercy swallowed to try and clear the lump in her throat at the warnings. This trek through the forest was going to be harder than she anticipated. Shaking herself she ignored the concerned looks of the dwarves and moved towards the trees. Thorin offered her a nod before leading them through the carved entrance.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been a few days since they entered the forest. Or at least that’s what she thought. A daze had settled over her the second she entered the accursed trees no matter how much she tried to fight it. Her thoughts jumbled together into a giant pool of just floating words that had no meaning to her. She couldn’t form a sentence in her mind before it slipped away like it was never there. Every step she took the ground underneath her shifted, moving up and down like it was breathing.

The dark trees around her swam in her double vision. A whisper next to her ear had her spinning around. Only she didn’t move. Her feet continued on the same breathing path they were before. A set of words crossed her thoughts but she couldn’t piece them together. Something else went by that didn’t make any sense. Floating and double vision of things she couldn’t place. Possibly a tree or vine. Blinking rapidly, she turned her head towards another whisper. It wasn’t something she could hear properly, maybe it was a leaf. A heavy object landed on her shoulder and pulled her to a stop.

Squinting her eyes she tried to find what had stopped her. Several things she didn’t know of were standing around her. Moving her head backwards and away she looked in the direction she might’ve been going. A thing of water split the land before her. Gasping, she took several steps towards it, wanting to touch something so new. But she didn’t get the chance as another something latched onto her. Heading the warning she offered a frown to the water and moved back towards the short things around her. One of them pushed her towards hanging vines and tree limbs. 

Not giving a second thought she started climbing the vines. Several more whispers sounded from behind her but she was already across the water. Once clear of the things she started forwards once more. Her feet hit the ground but never did she hear the footfalls. Louder whispers called out something that she didn’t know of. Blinking again, she looked down at the broken path underneath her feet. Only her feet were moving backwards against the leaves. Shaking her head she looked back up and stopped. A path branched off with more broken stone. Not knowing which way to go she sat down against a tree to wait for something to come help. 

It didn’t take long before the short things from before showed up in front of her. A cry left her mouth as she leaped up towards them. One of them grabbed her arm and held her in place. A jumble of words left her mouth that didn’t even pass her thoughts. Whispers answered her though, despite the fact that she couldn’t understand them. The thing holding her arm started leading down the branch in the path. She nodded to it and watched the way her feet carried her backwards.

Looking up and behind her something looked back. It was taller than the other things around her with light hair and light eyes. Screwing up her face she turned back around to find a different path away from that thing. Swaying back and forth she found another branch of broken stone. Words tumbled out of her mouth as she spun to follow the new path. It carried her away from the other things with something white lining the trees around her. Whispers started up around her once again before something slammed into her. Her double vision doubled again with dark spots clinging to the corners. She blinked once before the crowding spots took over.

 

“There’s dwarves in these woods!” Dori called out, holding up a mysterious tobacco pouch. Nori looked back at his older brother then went back at the missing path. He could’ve sworn it was right under his feet, but after searching for however long it was still missing. Turning back around he tried to find the tall figure of Angela among the dwarves, only she was nowhere to be seen. Spinning in a circle he looked into the surrounding trees trying to catch a glimpse of her. 

“Where’s Angela?” His question got the others looking around as well. “I thought she was with Oin?” 

“No, she was with Dwalin.” 

“She wasn’ with me.”

Nori tried to follow the argument but couldn’t focus on them. He spun once again and strained his eyes to even catch a flash of her hair. For once he was cursing her entirely black outfit. It made it nigh impossible to see her in the dark trees without a little bit of sun to shine on it. A tightening feeling entered his chest and grew stronger the longer she remained missing. He couldn’t place the feeling, and didn’t get the chance to try as something heavy slammed into his back.

 

Mercy blinked open her eyes slowly as she landed on something hard. The fog encasing her brain was receding little by little until she could feel her own limbs again. She struggled against the material holding her still and managed to rip through it. Sitting up quickly she pulled the white web off her face and what she could get off her body. Around her the sounds of the dwarves reached her ears. Their loud chattering and scrambling to their feet had her moving as well. The satchel hanging around her body bounced against her hip harshly as she sprung up. She looked around her and started counting how many of the company was near her. Everyone but Bilbo was there.

“Oh thank Mahal!” She spun on her heel to face where the cry had come from. Bofur drug her into a hug with Bifur joining him. “We thought we’d never see ye again, lass, after we lost ye.”

“Lost me? I thought I was with you guys the whole time. What happened?” Her arms went out to return the hugs before they pulled away. Bifur started making hand gestures and speaking in Khuzdul to her. 

“You wandered off just as we lost the path,” Balin answered. The older dwarf was pulling spider webs out of his beard. 

Before Mercy got the chance to ask another question several large spiders started dropping from the trees. A shout left her as one of them raced straight towards her. Pulling out her blaster she fired off a shot that tore through the creatures head. She lowered her arm and watched the others fight off the spiders, slowly being moved into a circle. Wanting to help as much as she could she fired off more shots, each one hitting its mark and tearing a hole through the spider. She grimaced as a splash of something hit her cheek.

Shaking her head she went to fire off another shot when an arrow slammed home through the spider’s face. She lifted her head to see several elves surrounding them after taking care of the spiders. Not knowing if these elves were friendly or not she put her blaster back into her satchel. The second she moved several arrows were drawn and pointed at her.

“Don’t think I won’t kill you dwarf.” Her eyes left from the dark haired elf in front of her to a blonde standing in front of Thorin. The dwarves didn’t say anything but Kili’s shouts interrupted the silence. Fili spun around the find his brother only to see him held down by a spider. Mercy watched as a red haired elf leaped down the trees and dispatched the spiders around the young dwarf.

“Search them!” The blonde elf ordered and received responses in elvish. The dark haired elf in front of her grabbed the satchel off her body, making her struggle to not snatch it back. The elf riffled through the bag before turning back to her. 

“I have nothing else on me.” Her words got a nod and a thing of rope wrapped around her wrists.

Mercy shook her wrists as the elf started pushing her with the others. This wasn’t the first time she was in bonds and she doubted it would be her last. But that didn’t make her enjoy the feeling anymore. While listening to dwarves chatter she studied the surrounding forest. Instead of dark web covered trees it changed to the sunlight covered ones she expected to see. Despite the situation she couldn’t help admire the beauty, especially the bridge they crossed. Even inside the palace, which she assumed that’s what it was, the tree architecture was amazing. 

Around her the dwarves complained about being led further down, passed all trees and down into the caverns. Mercy couldn’t exactly complain, the space was better than some of the jails in her world, if only a bit darker. When the elves started shoving dwarves into cells, she latched onto whoever was standing in front of her. She had no desire to be placed in a cell by herself. The elf pushing her along eyed her before allowing her to go into the cave behind Nori. Letting go of his coat she plopped down on the stone bench lining the wall with a sigh. Her chin fell into her palm as she watched Nori try to break down the door. 

“That’s not going to work,” she said. Seemingly thinking along the same lines Balin’s voice echoed through the cavern. Nori looked back at her then went back to the door, studying where it connected to the wall. 

Shaking her head at him she looked back to wall across from her. Not even half an hour in and she was already bored. She never did well when boredom set in, she always wanted something to do. Her fingers danced on her chin and her thigh. Sighing, she reached down to pull off her boots and bring them up to her face. The metal joints bent backwards and flopped against each other, one boot for each hand. Spinning them for a second before letting them slip through her fingers only to catch the bottoms once more. Flipping them up so the soles looked up at her she started picking out the rocks stuck in them.

Before long she had a substantial pile of rocks and sticks sitting next to her. Placing her feet back in the boots she picked up a small rock. Turning so she rested against the back wall she tossed the rock through the cell door. It bounced on the stone outside before falling down the ravine. She raised an eyebrow at the look Nori was sending her from next to the door. Another rock found its way bouncing down the ravine. She tossed a few more rocks before gathering up her pile and joining Nori on the floor in front of the door. Setting down the pile she placed a finger over her lips as a sign for him to keep quiet. Once receiving his nod she picked up a rock and pointed to the cell just across and down from them. Kili was sitting by his own door looking at something in his hands. 

Not even waiting for Nori to nod at her she pushed her hand through the metal bars and tossed the small rock at the young dwarf. It bounced off the ground next to his feet before rolling further into the cell. Kili’s head shot up and looked around, trying to find what was thrown. Nodding to Nori she pointed to the other cells holding the dwarves. 

“Don’t actually hit them,” she warned. A grin crossed the dwarf’s face before a rock was in his hand. He pointed up to where Dwalin was a few cells away from them. Mercy watched as the rock flew with surprising accuracy to hit the tall dwarf right in the middle of the forehead. “What did I tell you?” Her hand went out to slap the back of his head. 

“I couldn’t help it,” Nori said. Mercy scowled at him and covered the pile of rocks to keep him from grabbing another. Even though she knew she was being childish she couldn’t help it when Nori crossed his arms at her. Both raised an eyebrow at the other, not yet ready to relent. Eventually Nori sighed and uncrossed his arms. “I won’t do it again.”

“Fine.” Mercy lifted her hands and picked up a heavier stick. She tested it in her hand before letting it fly to where Kili was still sitting. It bounced off the bars of his door with a clang. A snicker left Nori at seeing the young dwarf turning around once more. He grabbed one of the smaller rocks and tossed it down to hit next to Kili. Mercy had to slap a hand over his mouth to keep his laughter from alerting the young dwarf below them.

Both Mercy and Nori continued to torment the young prince until they ran out of things to throw. With the last stick they couldn’t keep quiet and brought Kili’s attention to them. He made a couple of hand gestures up at them and a few words spoken in Khuzdul. Which only made Nori laugh harder until he was falling backwards, taking Mercy down with him. For several seconds they lay on the ground trying to catch their breath, still occasionally laughing when their eyes met. 

Mercy drew in a deep breath and turned her head to the side. Her eyes met Nori’s and her heart stopped at the shine in them. There was something in the bright green that she couldn’t place, but made her feel like it belonged. Drawing in a shuddering breath, her blue eyes trailed over the rest of his face. Tracing every line and hair that was carefully put together to make up his unique look. Moving her eyes back up his face she found him still watching her as well. Something in her chest ached, but not in an unpleasant way. In a way that made her want to stay this close to him and never have him disappear. 

The loud sound of something falling down the ravine got Mercy scrambling backwards. Her cheeks flushed and she coughed as she moved to go back to her bench. Swallowing hard she refused to look at the dwarf getting to his feet. She heard him start to pace the length of the cell like a caged lion, but she continued to stare at her feet. 

What felt like hours passed by before Nori sat down next to her. He left a space between them but was close enough Mercy could feel the warmth coming off him. Neither of them said anything, but the silence wasn’t nearly as awkward as it was before. Mercy lifted her head and looked towards the door as someone started speaking. It wasn’t loud enough to hear everything but enough for her to know if was Kili talking to someone about stars. A snort left her mouth as the she-elf went on about how all elves loved the light, wood elves liking starlight more than any other. 

“Technically the light you see from the stars is light-years away.” The words were tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them. She heard Nori shift to face her. “Kili is right about it being a cold light. The energy given off from the stars travel unimaginable distances through space just to be seen by something. It’s well in the past when you finally see it in the sky. Sometimes a star you see is no longer living, even if it is rare. But you’ll never know if it is dead or not.” She turned to face the dwarf and brought a leg up on the bench. 

“Back in my world, there is one star that is close to exploding. It has been since the 1840s. Eta Car-something. Even over two hundred years later the star is still living, Lucheng Interstellar continues to monitor it in place of the old NASA program. I don’t know why they do, but I can’t say I don’t enjoy the updates they give.” Mercy looked up from picking at the hanging black fabric to see Nori’s well concealed puzzlement. She knew he wouldn’t understand a word she was saying, but she was glad he listened to her anyway.

They fell back into silence after her star rant. She continued to play with her suit while Nori got back up to watch out the door. It was so boring in the cell that Mercy was close to nodding off. And she would have if not for the excited cries of the dwarves. Leaping off the bench, she joined Nori by the door and watched as Bilbo unlocked it. She offered the Hobbit a thankful smile and followed after him. 

Her smile fell from her face as Bilbo lead further down into the palace. It didn’t seem like the way out, but she was going to trust in the Hobbit. She kept her mouth shut the entire way down into the cellar, eyeing the passed out elves warily. When Bilbo pushed for them to get in the large barrels stacked on the floor she did just that. She crawled into the top most barrel, cramping her legs just a bit to be able to fit and hide, before poking her head out. The others followed after her and once all of them were in barrels Bilbo pulled a lever. Mercy ducked back into the barrel as it started rolling and dropping through the empty air. The cold water rushing over her shocked her system.

Spluttering out water she popped back up and clutched the lip of the barrel like a lifeline. The barrel spun in circles as the current pushed her along until she crashed into the others. They weren’t fairing much better than she was. Shaking her head to try and get rid of the dripping water caused her barrel to spin again. Wet blonde hair slapped her in the face now that the water knocked out the last ponytail holder she had. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes just in time to see Bilbo pop up next to Nori. At Thorin’s order they all started paddling until they caught the current again. A shout from up ahead got her hunkering down in the barrel. It dropped down a small waterfall and spun around in the rapids afterwards. 

Popping back up she wished she hadn’t. A bridge was covering another dip in the river and with a shout from the elves heavy iron gates closed them off. Mercy’s barrel had somehow made its way up to the front of the company so she slammed into the gate with Thorin. She turned around to watch the others join them, Oin and Balin joining her under the bridge. Above her she could hear orc screeching and the sounds of bodies falling. Her eyes looked back to others as a body fell into the water in between them. Soon orcs were jumping onto them, trying to drag them from the barrels. The dwarves made quick work of the orcs despite not having any weapons, and took those that the orcs were wielding. She watched as Kili hopped up and out of his barrel. She followed him the best she could with her hearing and cursed when something struck him down.

Fili shouted for his brother but Mercy didn’t get the chance to check if he rejoined them as the gates opened. She went over the edge of the waterfall and down the rapids. Water pulled her under enough times to have her gasping for breath and clinging to the lip. Just when she stopped being dunked orcs leaped at her. Something was shouted to her then the orc on top of her barrel started falling to the side. Reacting quickly she pulled the axe out of the dead body and tossed it back to Dwalin. He nodded to her before calling out to Nori and throwing it behind him. Mercy watched at the company worked as a team to kill all the orcs jumping at them, helping when she could by handing off weapons. She watched fascinated as Bombur rolled over the orcs in his barrel before twirling around with an axe in one hand and a sword in the other. 

Once the dwarf jumped back into an empty barrel the blonde elf from before jumped from one dwarf to the next, standing on top of Dwalin and Dori for a period of time. She nodded her thanks up to him when he shot an orc coming at her. The elf didn’t give her a second look as he went to kill a different orc on the shore. Mercy pushed her bangs off her face to watch where her barrel was going. It floated passed Thorin and started for a branch in the river. 

“Thorin!” Her arm shot out to try and latch onto his barrel as she passed by. The dwarf king spun in his barrel just as her fingers slipped passed the lip. His arm shot out to grab her outstretched hand, gripping her fingers tightly before pulling her out of the split current. He let go of her once receiving a nod that she was going to be alright. 

Mercy stayed near the front of the group as they outran the orcs. But as the rapids started to settle into a strong current she did her best to join where the others were lagging behind. Nori’s barrel slammed into her’s and made her spin around in a few circles before a hand stopped her. Shoving her hair back again she looked to the dwarf holding her still. She nodded to him and spread out her arms well passed the barrel.

“I’m so cramped in here,” she complained. Her legs were folded up in a close to unnatural position and her back was pressed against the lip of the barrel harshly. 

“I’ll trade you.” Mercy looked down to where Bilbo was still clinging to the side of Nori’s barrel. He looked well passed drowned and water logged. She couldn’t help the pity she felt at the sight of him and frowned down in thought. 

“Alright.” She reached over the side of the barrel to pull the Hobbit closer to her own. At his protests she started talking again, explaining her reasoning. “Look, Bilbo, it’s probably safer for me to be in the water the you. You’re small, no offense, and easily swept away. Not to mention you look terrible down there, and I’m uncomfortable in here.”

She braced herself for the fall that was about to come and warned Bilbo. Standing up in the barrel had the exact effect she thought it would. It tipped to the side and slammed her into the water, nearly flipping over completely. Diving deeper into the water, she popped up just beside Nori’s barrel and latched onto the siding net. Shaking the hair out of her eyes she pushed herself to the now empty barrel to help Bilbo climb inside. In doing so she caught sight of the bag hanging off his body. It was dripping wet but unmistakably her satchel that the elves had taken. 

“Is that my satchel?”

“Hmm?” Bilbo looked down at the bag once he was settled in the barrel. “Oh, yeah. The elves had it with them in the cellar. I took it for you.” When he started to take it off she held out a hand to stop him.

“Thank you, but hold on to it for now. I wouldn’t want to lose it.” She pushed off his barrel and fell back against Nori’s. 

It spun for a full circle before it settled back down. Mercy clung to the side of it, ever thankful for no longer being in the rapids, and blinked water out of her eyes. A thought crossed her mind and brought a smirk to her face. It’s about time for payback for stealing all of her things at one point or another. Schooling her features, she shot a glare at Bilbo to keep him quiet, she looked up to the dwarf above her. He wasn’t exactly looking at her but his eyes kept falling back to her. 

“You know,” she started. Nori turned to look down at her fully, his own long hair falling in his face. “If you stay pressed to one side of the barrel, I can lean on the other end.” He raised an eyebrow at her and watched for something to change in her expression before putting all his weight on one side of the barrel.

Mercy pulled herself on the lip of the other side and offered him a vicious smirk. She couldn’t help the laugh escaping her as the barrel started tipping on his end when she pushed off the edge. Keeping a hold on the net she let the barrel splash on its side before popping back up with her tugging. Her laughter wasn’t at all deterred by the glaring, soaked to the bone, dwarf above her. The grip she had on the net was loosening with how much she was laughing and doing her best to not fall face first into the water. And she would have if not for the hand pulling her back up.

“I can not believe you listened to her.” Bilbo shook his head back at the pair but he was still snickering to himself. Nori turned his glare to the Hobbit before aiming it back at the doctor hanging from his hand. Mercy finally calmed down enough to meet his eyes without laughing again and sighed softly. Her hand reached up to push her own bangs back before doing the same to Nori’s hair. 

“I’m not sorry, you deserved that.” She dropped her hand back to the barrel but rested her chin on the lip. Making sure to keep her mouth closed, in order to not bite off her tongue, she stared up at the dripping dwarf. Nori refused to look at her and turned to watch the others ahead of them. But his hand still held her’s in place despite not wanting to deal with her. Mercy smiled softly and moved her head to look out over the water, pressing the side of her head to the arm still keeping her in place.


	8. Chapter 8

Mercy didn’t know how far they travelled down the river but at some point the water grew increasingly colder. By the time they had lost the current she was shivering in the water. In an effort to keep her body temperature up she swam away from Nori to see if she could find Kili somewhere in the barrels. She got a few protests from the dwarves as she pushed passed them while looking for the young prince. Thankfully she found him just as Thorin called for them to go to shore. Being the first on the rocks she helped Kili out of his barrel and set him higher up on the warm stone. 

She called for Bilbo to bring her the satchel so she could cut his pants enough to see the wound and possibly bind it with her other clothes. Kili tried to wave her off saying he was fine but she wouldn’t hear it. Crouching down in front of the dwarf she peeled back the bloody cloth to get a better look at the arrow head still in the wound. A frown made its way onto her face as she poked the skin around the wound. It was starting to turn a black color. Taking her fingers away she checked to see how much blood he was actually losing. Shaking her head she did her best to wipe away the drying blood only for more to drip down his leg.

“Bilbo!” Her sharp voice got all of the dwarves looking over at her. She shot him a pointed look that got the Hobbit moving faster towards her. Not even pausing she took the satchel off his small body and pulled it into her lap. 

The top flipped up and Mercy did pause at the sight of the dry inside. Pushing the questions away for another time she dug to the bottom of the bag and took out a shiny dagger. Bofur and Kili gave her uneasy looks from their respective spots beside and in front of her. Dropping the bag back to the ground she motioned for Bofur to hold Kili’s leg still. “This going to hurt.” She cut away the pant leg around the wound before putting the smooth tip to his skin. With steady hands she cut the skin around the arrow head enough to see where it was stuck. Kili sucked in a breath above her but didn’t flinch as much as she thought her would. Nodding up to him she parted the wound and did her best to pull out the arrow head. Blood pushed up out the wound and ran down Kili’s leg. She heard him curse above her but she didn’t stop until the metal was sitting on the stone.

Taking Fili’s hands, who had decided he needed to be with his brother, she pressed them down on the bleeding wound. Once she was sure he wouldn’t lighten up she pulled away and with the other dagger she shredded her sweater and jeans. They wouldn’t be the best wraps but they were better than the dirty rags the dwarves had. Ignoring Thorin’s commands for them to get up, she took a strip of her jeans and wrapped it tightly on his upper thigh. She didn’t trust the blackness spreading from the wound but she didn’t have the materials to stop it. Instead she was going to try and stop it from spreading to the rest of his body. Just after tying that off the sound of an arrow being shot at her made her whirl around. 

“You better watch yourself.” Her glare swept over the tall man standing above them with a harshness she hardly held. Without waiting for his reaction she grabbed a strip of her sweater and wrapped it just above Fili’s hands. Pulling the bloody hands away she quickly wrapped another strip over the wound. A grunt came from the dwarf she was working on but that didn’t stop her from tying another strip over the wound. 

“You have got to be careful, Kili. There is something in your wound that I can’t fix right now. If you start feeling worse, tell me.”  She pushed herself up to her feet and looked down at the dwarves. 

“I’m fine.” Mercy raised an eyebrow at the young dwarf prince unimpressed with his words. “I will tell you if I feel worse.” 

Accepting his words finally she moved back down to the river to clean herself off. Kili’s blood dripped off her hands the blade she had used. Behind her she heard Balin trying to get them passage over the lake but she didn’t hold her breath that it would work. Instead she rinsed off the blood decorating her hands and armor in the cold water. Shaking off the water she stood back up and went back to her satchel. She slung it over her chest while placing the dagger and shredded clothes back inside. It still brought questions to her mind how everything inside in the satchel was still dry. But then again with Gandalf giving it to her it wasn’t all that surprising some kind of magic was on it.

When she rejoined the others they were stepping onto the barge sitting on the water. Not even sparing the man a look she settled down on the front of the boat. She watched as the dwarves emptied their pockets for the money needed to pay the man for the smuggling that was occuring. Balin sat on the ground and counted all the coins as they travelled over the water. The air around them started dropping in temperature and fog grew on the water, hiding everything from sight. Mercy didn’t know much about weather but she was pretty sure temperature didn’t drop that fast in her world. 

A shiver went up her spine as a cold breeze brushed her wet hair across her neck. The heating components in her suit were acting up again, leaving her cold and wet. Her mood as dropping lower with the air around her even if the dwarves were furnaces around her. Their body heat wasn’t helping her any. In order to keep out of the wind she dropped to sit on the floor of the boat. She wrapped her arms around herself and hunkered down next to Balin, who was still counting the coins in front of him. Above her Thorin and Dwalin discussed the man guiding the boat, Bard according to Bilbo, while Balin said they had a problem. They were ten coins short. 

“Gloin.” Thorin looked down at the red haired dwarf sitting next to Nori. Mercy didn’t care for what he had to say on the matter, she just wanted out of this weather. Around her the dwarves started standing and turning to something hidden by the fog. Sighing she clambered to her feet and observed the sight of the lonely mountain towering in the short distance. Being this close to the end of the journey was both exciting and mood dampening. Once the dwarves reclaimed their mountain she would have to leave, either back to her world or out into the wild of this one. 

Turning eyes away from the mountain she looked over at where Nori was standing. Both options for her after this quest was over didn’t settle well for her. While she would love to go back to her world with all the technology and modern medicine, and showers everyday, she couldn’t bring herself to want to leave this world either. There was a simplicity to it that kept her wanting to learn more about nature and its inhabitants. Then there was the odd thing going on with a certain auburn haired dwarf. She couldn’t place where he fell in her thoughts. He made her feel so carefree, more than she had been in years, but there was something she couldn’t place. The aching feeling she got in her chest every time she looked at him made her want to be wary, but that same feeling made her stop from distancing herself. 

Tearing her gaze and thoughts from the dwarf, she looked back out to the open water. Only she didn’t get the chance to look at it for long before she was being pushed towards a barrel. She climbed in upon Thorin’s orders and curled up much like she did in the elves cellar. It made her cramped and uncomfortable and muffled any noise around her. She was about to voice her complaints when fish started dropping on her head. A cry of disgust left her before she could stop it. The fish piled up on top of her and would have left no room to breath if she hadn’t held her hands up. 

She didn’t know how long she was in the barrel surrounded by fish, but it was long enough to put her in a foul mood. At one point the boat stopped and she could hear muffled voices speaking and things being dropped into the water. But that didn’t last long before the boat was moving again. The next time the boat stopped she got the order it was alright of come out. Pushing out of the fish was a nightmare and she was cursing Bard in every language she could remember by the time she got out. The fish slime coated her suit and slicked down her hair, sticking it to her face. 

Her mood wasn’t changed any when they had to hide in the market to avoid being caught by guards. It only got worse when Bard told them they had to come up through his toilet into his house. She was spitting curses before she had even cleared the water. The young boy that helped her out recoiled from her but she couldn’t find the energy to care. Once she was up the stairs she clamped down on her tongue to avoid saying anything worse in front of the young girls. They held out thick blankets to the dwarves and Mercy. 

The doctor went about stripping out of her armor and metal boots. Without any other clothes to change into she had to make due with the undersuit and blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Her dripping armor was left by the table along with her boots while she placed herself next to Kili on the couch. She allowed him to get comfortable before she undid the wrappings on his leg. The blood had stopped leaking out and a large scab was over the tender skin. It wouldn’t hold long with how large the wound was but she was thankful to see that the blackness had stopped spreading. While she didn’t know what it was or how to deal with it it eased her worry to see it not travelling through his body. She went about changing the bandages before moving to stand by the fire.

Her bare feet warmed up a considerable amount just by being near a fire. She could feel her nerves calming and her foul mood lessening with each passing minute. Behind her the dwarves talked with Bard about the weapons they paid for, but she couldn’t care less. Instead of listening to them argue she sat down on the hardwood and ran her fingers through her slowly drying hair. The fish slime had been washed out in the water but it still smelled disgusting. She dug through her satchel and pulled out a small strip of her sweater to use as a tie. Before she could start pulling her hair back someone else’s fingers took her place. Tilting her head back she caught sight of Nori standing behind her with his own hair hanging loose.

Looking back to the fire she let the dwarf pull her hair up into a ponytail while leaving her bangs out. She couldn’t deny the fact that he was skilled in working someone’s hair, she expected him to be after learning he did his own hair. Her body relaxed under his smooth motions and she probably would’ve fallen asleep if he hadn’t held out a hand for the strip of cloth in her hands. He made quick work of tying up her hair and moving to sit beside her on a chair. Mercy stretched out her arms, making the blanket resting on her shoulders slide to the ground, and did the same with her legs. Humming to herself she looked around the small house to see all the dwarves spread out combing through their own hair and beards.

Making up her mind she pulled the blanket back up her shoulders and got to her feet. No one spared her a glance other than the dwarf sitting next to her. Mercy took the one step needed to be right next to him and lifted her gloveless hands to his messed up hair. While she didn’t know how he made the three peaks or the intricate braids she seen him brush out the long hair enough times to know that’s how he started. She didn’t plan on even trying to fix his hair but at least wanted to help him by getting all the tangles and leaves out. Underneath her gentle fingers he suddenly froze which made her pull away. Following his gaze she saw all of the others watching her.

“What are you doing?” She looked over to Fili then back down to Nori, who was refusing to look at the others. 

“Returning a favor.” She motioned to her own ponytail. “Why?” A few of the dwarves shifted in their spot and looked away from her. 

“Well, lass,” Balin started. She turned her curious gaze to the older dwarf, at least he was going to explain. “I know you’re not from this world and there are probably different customs for you. But the fixing of one’s hair and beard is reserved for family and loved ones, if the dwarf so chooses.” Mercy blinked at the dwarf for a second before slowly lowering her hands. A blush dusted her cheeks as she turned to move from Nori.

“I’m surprised he even let you get close.” She turned slightly to where Dori was sitting at the table next to her. “He stopped letting me help him a few decades ago.” He cast a look at his younger brother then sent a small grin up to her. “If he’s willing to let you help, I won’t stop you.”

Mercy looked away from Dori back down to where Nori was refusing to look away from the fire. In the soft light she could see the coloring on his cheeks that brought a grin to her face. The ache in her chest eased just a smidge as she went back to running her fingers through his hair. It was soft and easy to run her fingers through despite the fact that it was still wet and probably had never been actually cared for like hers. Her own hair was gross and slightly greasy after going so many weeks without proper care; but Nori’s felt like it had just been out of the wash. Now, she had never been jealous of someone’s hair, but she would make an exception for his. 

Behind her she heard the other dwarves talking about something. Mentions of weapons and leaving for the mountain caught her attention. Bard had said they couldn’t leave until dark. Mercy glanced out the window to see the sun still setting then looked to where most of the dwarves were standing by the door. She let Nori finish his hair while she moved to check on Kili, in order to keep herself occupied. The young dwarf sat through her workings with little complaint, but she could see the pain coloring his face. There was little she could do for him without proper medicine and equipment. She re-tied his bandages and helped him to his feet. Thorin was calling for them to get up. 

Mercy followed the dwarves out of the house with an apology aimed at the children. She closed the door behind her and hopped down the stairs to catch up with the dwarves. They were moving through the town hiding from the guards as the sun finally sunk below the horizon; waiting for the opportunity to hit the armory. The cold seeped into her bones as she waited outside the building. Several dwarves made a ladder for the other half to climb up into the top floor. She had refused to participate in their act of stealing and remained hugging herself to hold her body heat in. Wherever in the world they were it had to be way up north for the temperature to change so drastically in a single day. 

It was getting so cold snow started to fall from the sky. Mercy shivered for a moment before she felt her suit starting to heat up. A sigh of relief escaped her as she felt herself starting to thaw out; she could almost feel water dripping down her neck. Before she could get too comfortable a shout startled her. She spun around to find a sword pointed at her chest and several guards staring the small group down. 

The guard grabbed her roughly and started shoving her through the streets. She struggled out of their grip the second they let her go. Spinning around, she went to tell the guard off for manhandling her but paused. Several people stood on the streets and surrounded the group. Unease started to grow in her chest as she turned back around to see where they had been taken. A giant house type building was towering over them with two men standing on the porch. One reminded of a weasel dripped in grease and the other was just as disgusting but definitely the one in charge of the town. She grimaced and tightened her one handed grip on her satchel strap. It was lucky that the guards didn’t take it from her. 

“What is the meaning of this?” The rounder man on the porch asked while pulling on a coat. 

“We caught them stealing weapons, sire.” One of the guards answered. Mercy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms while moving to glare up at the men. 

“Ah, enemies of the state.” A scoff made its way up her throat but she held it back. She knew better than to make this situation worse than it already was. Even if she really wanted to tell the men off for handling her so roughly.

“A desperate bunch of mercenaries if ever there was, sire.” The weasel said. His gaze moved over the dwarves to come to a stop on Mercy. A shiver of disgust went down her spine. “Well, except maybe that one.” She raised an eyebrow at him while her face twisted up in a grimace. From next to her a low growl started up but she moved a hand to stop Nori from making anything worse.

“Hold your tongue.” Mercy looked over to Dwalin to see him stepping forward. Apparently he didn’t get the memo. “You do not know to whom you speak. This is no common criminal; this is Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror.” He moved over to where Thorin was standing, making the dwarf come to stand next to him. Several gasps sounded from the crowd behind them. 

“We are the dwarves of Erebor.” The crowd started to murmur to each other at his words. “We have come to reclaim our homeland.” Thorin took a few steps closer to the stairs before starting up again. “I remember this town in the great days of old. Fleets of boats lay at harbour, filled with silks and fine gems.” He turned to survey the buildings and people standing behind them. “This was no forsaken town on a lake. This was the center of all trade in the North! I would see those days returned. I would relight the great forges of the dwarves and have wealth and riches flowing once more from the halls of Erebor!”

The crowd started to cheer for the dwarf king. Mercy looked around at the people and saw that they were enraptured by Thorin’s speech. She could understand, he definitely had a way with words. 

“Death!” A voice shouted from the ground. Everyone moved apart to let Bard through into the circle. “That is what you will bring upon us. Dragon fire and ruin. If you waken that beast, it will destroy us all.”

“You can listen to this naysayer, but I promise you this… If we succeed, all will share in the wealth of the mountain.” Mercy shuffled on her feet as unease continued to build in her. She couldn’t help but feel it wouldn’t be that simple. “You will have enough gold to rebuild Esgaroth ten times over!” The crowd cheered for the king’s words as the dwarves nodded to each other. 

“Why should we take you at your word, eh? We know nothin about you,” the weasel said. Mercy turned her gaze up to the man and didn’t try to hide the glare on her face. “Who here can vouch for your character?” 

“I can.” Mercy took the few steps needed to stand just behind Thorin. Everyone’s eyes turned to her. “My traveling has led me to see what type of person each of these dwarves are. And, sure, there is one or two that is a little sticky fingered.” A cough and slapping of hands came from behind her. “But Thorin is not among them. He is true to his word and willing to do anything for his family. Do not let his race cloud your judgment.” Just as a few cheers started up in the crowd the weasel stopped them. 

“And why should we take the word of a woman?” Mercy narrowed her eyes at the man. Irritation burned on her skin, but instead of acting on it, she took a step back. Attacking the weasel would do no good for anyone. She muttered a few insults under her breath as she fell back next to Nori. 

“Then me.” Bilbo’s voice sounded from the circle. The dwarves parted for the men on the stairs to see him. “I’ll vouch for him. I have traveled far with these dwarves, through great danger...and if Thorin Oakenshield gives his word then he will keep it.” Mercy gave the hobbit a small grin as the crowd started back up again. 

“All of you! Listen to me.” Bard’s voice brought to crowd to a stand still once more. "You must listen. Have you forgotten what happened to Dale? Have you forgotten those who died in the firestorm? And for what purpose?” He turned away from the crowd to stare down at Thorin. “The blind ambition of a mountain king...so driven by greed he could not see beyond his own desire!”

“Now, now, we must not, any of us, be too quick to lay blame.” Everyone turned their eyes up to the round man on the stairs. “Let’s not forget that it was Girion, Lord of Dale, your ancestor, who failed to kill the beast!” Mutterings started up in the crowd again, but not nearly as good. 

“It’s true, sire. We all know the story. Arrow after arrow he shot. Each one missin its mark.” Mercy looked away from the weasel to the dwarves. Something she couldn’t place was on their faces. It wasn’t grief or anger or accusation, but something a little bit in between. 

“You have no right, no right, to enter that mountain,” Bard said. 

“I have to only right.” Thorin said, not looking away from the man. He turned away from him to face the stairs once again. “I speak to the master of the men of the lake. Will you see the prophecy fulfilled?” Thorin started up the stairs and came to a stop in the middle of them. “Will you share in the great wealth of our people?” Silence reigned for several moments. “What say you?”

“I say unto you. Welcome!” The streets erupted into loud cheers at the Master’s words. “Welcome and thrice welcome, king under the mountain!”

After a few minutes of cheering the crowds started to disperse. The Master welcomed the company into his house with open arms. Mercy placed herself in the middle of the dwarves to avoid being too close to either of the men. She was uncomfortable and disgusted with their stares. The weasel’s eyes remained trained on her even as they were led to a big room with a table and multiple chairs inside. Food was piled on the table along with copious amounts of alcohol. 

“We’ll leave you here.” The weasel said while motioning to the room. Several piles of armor and weapons were placed by the door, but went ignored for the moment. Mercy went to step closer to the table when a hand wrapped around her shoulders. “Would you not like to stay somewhere apart from the dwarves? A woman like yourself should not be sleeping among these men.” 

Mercy closed her eyes and prayed for strength before starting to turn around. Her hand went out to push off the weasel’s hand and she took a step back. She dipped her hand into her satchel and fingered the blaster resting within. “Touch me again and you will not see the light of the next day.” The blaster was pulled partially from the satchel as a warning. 

The weasel eyed the dark item before shuffling back towards the door. Mercy kept the glare on her face until he slipped out of the room and the door slammed shut behind him. She relaxed and let go of her blaster. Behind her the dwarves were digging into the food and alcohol. A sigh left her before she was moving to join them at the table; she hasn’t eaten in what felt like forever. She sat down on a chair with a plate of bread and something else that resembled vegetables. A glass of wine was in her other hand that she was quick to down. For the next couple of hours the dwarves drowned themselves in alcohol. 

Mercy was still perfectly fine even after drinking a full bottle of wine by herself. Several of the dwarves were already passed out and sleeping around the room. Only Oin, Gloin, Dori, and herself were still awake. Though she was close to falling asleep herself. The only reason she hadn’t was because she was watching Nori sleep next to her with her satchel in his hands. He had swiped it from her sometime after he had gotten well past tipsy. What he was looking for she couldn’t tell, but he obviously hadn’t found it. She rubbed her face before stretching out. She had been sitting in the same place for two hours with little movement. 

It took her a moment but she soon found herself sitting next to Dori, sipping on another glass of wine. The dwarf looked over at her but didn’t say anything. She watched him tighten a strap down on a pack for a few moments before speaking. 

“Has your brother always been like this?” Her voice was quiet to avoid waking anyone up even as she knew that most of the company were hard sleepers. Dori looked up from his work to her before following her gaze to where it rested on Nori. 

“It didn’t start until our father left. Our Amad couldn’t take care of all three of us, Ori having just been born. While I started working, Nori took up other means,” Dori said. He looked away from his brother over to her. She hummed in thought while taking another sip of her wine. 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Ori takes a lot after him.” Both their eyes turned to where the youngest Ri was sleeping next to the princes. His precious journal was clamped in his arms like he fell asleep writing in it. “In mannerisms, I mean. He has an affinity to observing others and overhearing conversations. Not that that’s bad or anything. But he’s remarkably like Nori.” 

“That he is. I’ve been trying to steer him away from that path of life though. It didn’t work on Nori, but I’m hoping I caught it soon enough for Ori,” Dori said. Mercy looked over at him and sighed softly. 

“There are just some things you can’t stop, Dori. But I have no doubts that Ori will stray away from Nori’s influence. As it is, he’s probably just trying to avoid your over protectiveness.” Just as Dori opened his mouth to say something she held up her hand to silence him. “That’s not a bad thing. I’m just guessing that Ori gets fed up with it at times and likes that Nori isn’t nearly as vocal about it.”

“And how would you know all this?” Mercy hummed again and sipped her wine while looking back at Nori.

“Nori is not the only one who is observant.” She drained the rest of her cup and moved to stand again. “Sleep well, Dori.” Her feet carried her back to her chair when she settled down to sleep. 

The next morning Mercy woke up later than she normally would have. Everyone was already up and dressing in the armor provided to them when she got up. She made quick work of getting her satchel back from Nori, it was strung over his body like he owned it, and stuffing her feet into her boots. A yawn was still leaving her as she was ushered out the door by Dori. The older dwarf was making sure she was with them and away from the weasel; or so he said. What she really thought was that he turned his protectiveness to her instead of bearing down on his brothers. Not that she minded; it was kind of nice actually. 

Mercy stood on the dock just behind Kili as Thorin forced the prince to a stop. She kept her mouth shut as he told Kili he wasn’t joining them; and by the look he sent her over the dwarf’s shoulder, she wasn’t to be going either. Which she would have chosen to stay behind anyway given that Kili was currently her patient. Both Oin and Fili opted to stay behind as well. They waved off the group before Kili stumbled backwards. 

“Hold him still.” Mercy placed her hands on Kili’s cheeks and forehead only to feel a raging fever. “We have to get him some medicine or something or he’s not going to make it.” She ignored Bofur as he joined them and took off back for the Master’s house. 

“Wait! Wait, we need help.” Fili said while they came to a stop just before the stairs. The weasel and Master turned around to sneer at them. 

“Haven’t we helped you enough?”

“Kili’s sick and needs medicine,” Oin said. The Master started shooing them away and covering his mouth. 

“Do we look like an apothecary? Go bother somebody else.” The weasel turned them away and started back up the stairs. 

“You terrible excuse for men.” Mercy glared up the men before spinning on her heel. She had no time to deal with them, Kili was still dying. They didn’t bother going around the rest of the town and went straight for Bard’s home. The dwarves held up Kili while she knocked on the door. 

“No, I’ve had enough of you dwarves.” Bard said the moment he opened the door. 

“Please, no one else will help us,” Bofur started. Mercy moved out of the way for Bard to see the pale form of Kili. “He needs help.” 

Bard barely stopped for a moment before opening the door fully for them. Mercy gave him a nod and rushed inside to start clearing out an area for Kili to be placed in. She ordered for clean water and an open flame. There was an idea bouncing around her mind that might just give Kili enough time to survive until they found some medicine. The nanites that her staff took from her were a diluted form rushing through her veins. They weren’t strong enough to enter his blood stream and clear it of poison. But she was a universal donor. 

“Do you have any tubing? Needles?” She looked over her shoulder to where Bard was digging through a cabinet. He turned around to give her a confused look before shaking his head. “A thin hollowed out pipe?” Again all she received was a shake of his head. 

“Right, this is going to be a lot harder now.” Mercy muttered to herself. She pulled her satchel off and set it down on the bed next to Kili. Oin, Fili, and Bofur were talking and asking her questions that she didn’t feel the need to answer. “Hold this in the fire for a while. I need it sterile.” She shoved a dagger into Bofur’s hands before reaching back in her back to pull out a strip of her sweater. “Do we have any strong alcohol? And boiling water?” 

“Yeah, just give me a moment,” Bard said. She didn’t acknowledge him as she took the other dagger and cut down Kili’s pants. A protest came from the dwarves, but she needed a clear enough space to work. One of the young girls in the house handed her a bowl of hot water that she took with a short nod. Her hand reached for a clean strip of sweater and dipped it into the water. She soaked it before moving to clean around the dark wound. It was black and crusty with blood starting to push through the scabs. 

“I’m going to need you guys to hold him down in a moment,” she said. Bard placed a bottle next to her and Bofur came back with the now sterile dagger. Mercy opened the bottle and poured out a good amount on a cloth before swiping it over Kili’s wound. A shout of pain left the dwarf as he tried to struggle away from her touch. She paid him no mind as she started to strip out of her armor. The black armor was placed on the ground behind her while she struggled to pull her left arm out of the undersuit. 

“What in Mahal are you doing, lass?!” Bofur asked, still holding the dagger next to her head. Mercy looked up to him and the other’s in the room with a heavy sigh. 

“I’m going to do a blood transfusion. I’m a universal donor and the nanites in my body should work to start clearing away the poison before it kills him,” she said. She pulled her arm free of the black sleeve and let the suit drop down her chest. 

“What’s a blood thingy?” Fili asked, taking care to avoid looking at her chest. Mercy ignored him in favor of tying a strip of her jeans just above her elbow. She poured more alcohol on a cloth and scrubbed down the area just below her elbow crease. 

“Hold him down. I can’t have him moving.” She took the dagger from Bofur and held it over Kili’s wound. It needed to be open enough for her blood to get in. Another round of protests came from the dwarves as she sliced open the scab. Blood started to drip out of the wound and down the young dwarf’s leg. He kicked out weakly and struggled before the other dwarves held him down. 

Mercy put the dagger down and picked up the other one in her bag. She had a less likely chance of getting infected that Kili did. A deep breath later and she was pulling the blade down her arm. The sting that came with the cut was almost immediately staunched as her nanites started to close the wound. She cursed under her breath as she moved quickly to have her arm hovering over Kili’s wound. Her wound started to close only for her to dig the tip of the blade back into the cut. It stung but that was the only way to keep the wound open long enough to get her blood into Kili’s system. Thankfully her blood trickled down slower than a normal wound have; it allowed most the blood to fall into Kili’s wound. The nanites in her blood soaked into Kili’s veins while most of her blood rolled down his leg. It was a right mess, but hopefully it would keep the prince alive.

A couple minutes later Mercy was allowing her wound to close and helping clear away the blood covering Kili. The other dwarves took over the job while she shrugged her undersuit back on. Everyone avoided her eyes as she moved to clean up the mess that had been made. She put away her daggers and shoved the satchel down to the floor before taking its place on the bed. Already she could see the blackness around the wound fading and Kili’s fever lowering as the nanites worked through the poison. While they wouldn’t last long enough to clear all of it away, it would give them time to find a permanent solution. Which Oin and Fili were already starting to work on. 

For the next several hours Kili condition remained stable. Mercy kept his wound clean and wrapped while Oin tried to find the herbs he needed. It was just starting to darken outside when Kili worsened. He started shivering and moaning in pain again as his skin started to lose its color. A round of cursing went around the room as everyone moved to figure out what had happened. His wound was a sick black color again. While she knew it was only a temporary cure, Mercy couldn’t help but be disappointed that it hadn’t lasted longer. 

“Can you do your blood thing again?” Fili asked. He looked from his brother to where Mercy was sitting on the edge of the bed. 

“No. I don’t know how much of our blood can mix before it starts having harmful effects. We need to find another cure,” she said. 

“We need herbs. Something to lower his fever.” Oin said while dipping a cloth into hot water. Behind them Bard was naming all the herbs he had in his house. “Any Kingsfoil?”

“Kingsfoil? It’s a weed. We feed it to the pigs,” Bard said. 

“Pigs?” Bofur looked over to the man before taking off out of the house. Just as he left a tremor went through the house. Mercy looked up to the ceiling then out the window towards where the lonely mountain sat. 

“What was that?” One of Bard’s kids asked. Mercy wasn’t really paying attention to the family anymore. She had a pretty good intuition on what had caused the shaking. And her heart was plummeting in her chest as they talked about the dragon. Fear spiked in her chest, but not for herself. The other dwarves and hobbit were still up in the mountain; and if the dragon was awake then they had the least chance of survival out of everyone. 

Instead of focusing on those thoughts, Mercy went back to trying to help Kili. She heard Bard and his son leave the house but paid no mind to it. Whatever they were doing was no concern of hers. Fili and Oin talked above her head as she wiped off the sweat dripping down Kili’s face. The house around them started to tremble again but it wasn’t caused by the dragon this time. 

Mercy pulled from her work by the shrieks from the young girls in the house. Her head snapped up just as orcs dropped through the ceiling and entered through the door. They went after the girls first before they stuffed themselves under the table. Fili pulled out her daggers and started fighting off the orcs the best he could. Oin joined in by throwing various items at them. Mercy grabbed her blaster and wasted no time in shooting the disgusting creatures. There were too many of them for just the three of them to fight off even with her blaster. They were being overwhelmed until someone else joined the fight. 

The orcs were soon dealt with, with the help of Tauriel and Legolas. Mercy quickly moved to help Kili off the ground as his groans of pain started up again. Fili and Oin were by her side soon enough and hauling the prince to his feet. An order from Tauriel had them moving to place Kili up on the table. Bofur came to join them after handing off his handful of plants to the elf. 

Things moved quickly as Tauriel pressed the crushed plants into Kili’s wound. A cringe passed over Mercy but she held her tongue as the elf seemed to know what she was doing. Cries of pain left Kili as the elf started to chant something that Mercy couldn’t hope to understand. They were forced to hold the young prince down as she started squirming against whatever was happening. Mercy knew something significant was going on when a warmth washed over her face and a slight glow started up around the elf. But as quickly as it started the light disappeared and Tauriel stepped away from the table. 

Mercy let go of Kili and moved to join Oin and Fili by a stove type item. She listened to them whisper to each other about elf healing while watching Kili. Whatever Tauriel had done was working as the dwarf’s color was returning. It didn’t take but a few more minutes for him to wake up and start rambling to the elf. Nodding to herself, Mercy moved to put her body armor back on and started to shove everything back in her satchel. She had a feeling that something was going to happen real soon. And she was proven partially correct when the house started shaking once more.


End file.
